Western Bureau: Angry residents of Kew and Johnson Town in Hanover blocked more than three miles of roadway leading from their communities into Lucea on Thursday to protest against the bad road conditions, and the absence of water and other utilities from their homes.

The protest action which started at 5:30 am and lasted up to about 1:30 pm, effectively cut-off traffic flow to these communities. During this period, several commuters were also left stranded as bus drivers were forced to park their buses along the roadway.

“I have been living in Kew for the past 40 years or more, and from I have been living down here, is that condition the road is in,” Kew resident, Mavis Brown told the Observer. “We want justice, we want road, we want proper facilities, we want light, we want telephone. We want everything that the rich man have. Because you see when the rain fall, you have to wear shoes from your home, or a ‘lada’ bag come out here, and then wash yu foot in water,” Brown added.

“The flood rains of the past few days go inside people’s homes and damage things. The condition is very bad and we not going to stop block the road until we get our needs met,” she continued.

Brown added that they had “nobody” to effectively represent their interests, which left them little alternative but to block the main road.

“We don’t have anybody, nobody at all… When voting time, dem come all in a yuh kitchen, want eat all up to the piece of breadfruit weh yuh de eat to and now we need help. Nobody fi us. So we not going to stop block the roads until we get help,” she said, obviously distraught.

Another resident, Tamara Kerr expressed a similar view

“This has nothing to do with politics. We just need someone to come and see the road and see what we talking about and give us some right and justice, that’s all we need,” she said.

Kerr added that they were not animals, but people. And “people,” she said, “needed proper roadways on which to walk to their homes.”

Not everyone was happy with the delays brought on by the roadblock. In fact, attorney, Victor Robinson, was more than a little put out and annoyed with the residents for blocking the roads.

Robinson who was on his way to the Lucea Circuit Court to make a bail application on behalf of his client was prevented from doing so as a result of the roadblock. He said that his client would now have to continue to languish behind bars until some time next week as a result.

“I have a client there (in Lucea) who is languishing in custody… It is inconvenient to a number of people and one can only hope that the situation is remedied shortly. There were a number of people trying to get to work…,” Robinson said.

“Persons hold the view that the only way to get things done is to block the roads. But that should be the last resort. It should be petition, then protestation, then blockade.”