Government told to prioritise needs

OPPOSITION Leader, Mia Mottley, says instead of going to Parliament to seek to acquire land to construct a roundabout, there are more pressing needs currently facing the Government of Barbados.

 

The Member of Parliament for St. Michael North East briefly joined the debate in the Lower Chamber yesterday on a resolution to compulsorily acquire a parcel of land at Prince Road in Collymore Rock to construct a roundabout, with the view of easing traffic congestion.

 

According to Mottley, “Three weeks ago I went into White Hill, and the residents have to go down a slope that is slippery, it’s a gully. It is precipitous, perilous, they are walking on a step that is a half of a concrete block in one instance, a full one in another instance. You are going down an angle that is at least a 60 degree angle and coming back up and then at night you have no lighting.

 

“If any reasonable Barbadian looks today at what are the immediate priorities for the Ministry of Public Works in relation to the thousands of people who have been forced to wait for 3, 4, 5 hours to get a bus, in relation to the conditions of the people of White Hill, in relation to the condition of the people on the south coast.”

 

She charged that this also extends to the challenges facing the South Coast Sewerage Treatment Plant. “It is an amazing thing that those charged with the responsibility of securing the safety of the people of this country do not understand the prioritisation of needs. If the Government does not have money to buy buses to get people home; if Government cannot find money to get the South Coast Sewerage Treatment Plant working or even to do the emergency fix... how can we now find money to do new projects that are not yet on the table?”

 

Seeking clarity on the cost of the roundabout, she said: “Can it be a priority over the other things that the Government of Barbados now has to deal with? Can it be a priority over things related to the payment of arrears that businesses in Barbados are suffering from? And that this Government has to wake up and smell the coffee and deal with the priorities. Stop lulling people into a false sense of what else you can do when you cannot even get done that which you are required by law or required in the interest of public safety to be able to do,” she exhorted. (JH)