Opposition Leader, Mia Mottley.

Opposition Leader, Mia Mottley.

Not properly planned says Opposition leader

 

Opposition Leader Mia Mottley is suggesting that the Warrens Traffic Safety Improvement Project started without the appropriate planning in place.
 
This lack of planning, the St. Michael North East Member of Parliament, in whose constituency a portion of that project has been carried out, contended, is part of the reason why Government has not been able to complete the project. Mottley was speaking in the Lower House yesterday morning on a resolution to compulsorily acquire several parcels of land needed to finish the project. The Opposition Leader told the House that she is outraged at the way in which the project, which has been at a standstill for some time, has left some of the roads.
 
“It is unacceptable for the state of the road to remain in the condition it is, even if Government cannot complete the works. And I want to make this point very clearly. Anyone who comes up Green Hill to turn left to go to PriceSmart, has to be confronted with a nasty, bushy environment that ought not to be there. And it is clear that this project was started without the appropriate planning, that is clear and we accept that the consequences of that, is that Government cannot continue, because it cannot pay the landowners. Indeed the Minister has now said that the liability to the landowners is in the vicinity of $17 million,” she said.
 
She maintained that the general workers employed by the Ministry should be deployed to the area to clean it up and suggested the road should be resurfaced to prevent any further damage to cars traversing the area. Mottley’s comments came as she took the opportunity to chide Government for its failure to repair roads in the nearby Friendship Terrace, which residents have been asking for over ten years to have fixed.
 
She explained that in 2007 before leaving office, the Barbados Labour Party Administration signed a $35 million road works contract with Rayside Construction which included the Friendship area, but she said when the Democratic Labour Party came to power that area was removed from the plans. That decision, she said, is unfortunate as the roads servicing close to 300 houses are “absolutely in an awful state”.
 
With that in mind, she maintained it is untenable that there are plans on stream through the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) road project to fix the road network from Canewood to Lower Estate which is not occupied by a single human being, but in fact several construction companies, when Friendship Terrace remains in need of repairs.
 
“How does a government prioritise a road to be done by those who are making the road worse anyhow, through the multiple heavy duty trucks traversing it every day? Not a single human being living on that road and the people in a development settled by the Government in the early 70s remain victims today in getting a road done that 300 houses need to get in and out,” she stated.
 
Mottley suggested that the Opposition would prefer to see and fully support the IDB road project being used to cover the completion of the Warrens Traffic Safety Improvement Project and to fix the roads in Friendship Terrace. (JRT)

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