Dear Editor,

This is an open letter to Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller.

The community of Cornwall Court is currently home to approximately

16, 000 Jamaicans. In less than five years' time there will be approximately another 3000 more residents within this area. To reach home from downtown Montego Bay, we drive on the major thoroughfare, Salt Spring Road. This road, Cornwall Court to King Street, was placed on the Jamaica Development Infrastructure Programme. To date, the road is worse than it was before work started in February 2011. Completion was set for February 2012.

This thoroughfare is the worst nightmare for all of us who live along its path and those who must travel on it to and from home in Cornwall Court. Every form of respiratory illness is experienced; everybody's "pocket" is straining financially; thieves and gunmen have been having major field days in carrying out their dastardly and nefarious activities; taxis refuse to carry passengers and the emergency response agencies take two to three hours instead of the 15 to 20 minutes to get to us. These are just some of the ills which have been thrust upon us since the start of the work. We have been neglected. Why?

The residents of this community, the largest national housing scheme in western Jamaica, seek your urgent intervention and are calling upon you to immediately help in alleviating this wicked act which has been foisted upon us. We further request that you instruct the minister with responsibility for this portfolio to immediately restart the project with the intention of making our lives more comfortable.

Prime Minister, we are all frustrated by this crisis. It's going to take all of us - working together - to find a way out of this mess. Let's start by giving homeowners and residents of Cornwall Court and those along the Cornwall Court - King Street thoroughfare a fair deal.

We look forward to your support, Prime Minister, as we continue empowering our residents for holistic community development.

Floyd V Hitchman

President

Cornwall Court Citizens Association

cornwallcourt_citizens@yahoo.com