Dear Editor,

In a recent exchange between a columnist and a letter writer in the Observer, the columnist contended that the resources being devoted to highway construction could be more appropriately used to improve roads linking communities in the interior of the country which were poorly served. The letter writer, a leading official in the highway programme, pointed to the value of the highways in stimulating development in sectors such as tourism.

Each writer assumed a useful stance but seemed to avoid the essential point that both categories of roadway as part of a wider transport and communication strategy are important in various ways to an improved quality of life and overall development.

Get on with the highway construction please, but simultaneously, and with urgency, maintain and build new roads for our rural communities under a programme(s) which exceeds even the memorable feeder roads programme of the 1970s. What Jamaica needs is a better overall network that is less destructive to our bodies and vehicles which both attract high running and maintenance costs. This approach should substantially improve the opportunities for all of us to derive increased and sustained benefits from development (preferably not of a trickle-down tendency).

Where will additional funds be obtained for this strategy? Perhaps one should ask the economists. Whatever their response, building and maintaining roads could have the multiplier effect of providing jobs and income, and stimulating related economic activities in many communities.

Paul E Martin
Kingston 6

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