Payne: Government neglecting St. Andrew

Member of Parliament for St. Andrew, George Payne, says that his constituency has been neglected by the ruling Democratic Labour Party (DLP).

 

He also believes that last Tuesday’s Financial Statement and Budgetary Proposal delivered by Minister of Finance, Christopher Sinckler, gave the people of St. Andrew no hope of returning to better days.

 

“Every year the people in St. Andrew have been hoping that the Minister of Finance will institute measures to stimulate the productive sectors, so that there can be growth in the economy, so that people can go back out to work and so that St. Andrew can be like how it was prior to 2008 – no unemployment – and that is a fact!”

 

Payne explained to the lower House that his constituents relied heavily on work in government agencies, as the northern parish doesn’t have any hotels nor any tremendous amount of businesses.

 

“We rely a lot on the productive sectors to be stimulated and during the last eight years nothing has happened in St. Andrew,” he stressed, also taking the opportunity to share stories of how persons have openly expressed to him their struggles and their 

disappointment in the current administration.

 

As it relates to the issue of road failures within White Hill, a frustrated Payne stated, “The rest of Barbados does not understand how bad this government is treating the people in White Hill, they have to go see it for themselves.”

 

“People living under a galvanised shed, roads moving away – and I mean this was something that never happened. 

 

“There was a time when I first came to parliament, I was in Opposition and there was a Member for St. Lucy who was a Minister of Housing and every time I called him with respect to a matter, he came immediately. 

 

“I never had any problems with housing, never had problems with drainage, etcetera. That was a caring Government.” (TL)