WESTMORELAND — After what they describe as 30 years of neglect and empty promises to provide proper roadway and reliable water supply, residents of Little Bay and Salmon Point are now demanding that Wykeham McNeill, who was recently re-elected member of parliament for the area, “immediately” address their concerns.

Residents staged a peaceful protest earlier this week to highlight their plight and have since threatened to block the main road leading from Little London to the tourist resort of Negril if no action is taken to remedy these long-standing problems.

The residents say that because of the bad condition of the road, motorbikes have become the main mode of transportation in these two communities. At the same time, they pointed out that some sections of the road are so far gone that not even motorbikes can navigate them.

There are also a few taxi operators who make the hazardous four-mile trek from Little London to Salmon Point, but they charge no less than $400 per trip.

And to compound the long-standing problem with the roads, some areas are still reeling from the after-effects of Tropical Storms Lili and Isidore. Large ponds of water now cover some sections of the pothole-riddled roadway and the residents contend that their MP has failed to keep his promise to provide marl for a repair job.

As a result, large trucks have to be deployed to ferry residents across the water-logged sections of the roadway which is impassable to small vehicles.

Obviously frustrated, area residents are now insisting that a proper repair job be carried out on the roadway as it was now too far gone to benefit from any temporary patching with marl.

In addition, the mainstay of the two communities – the fishing and tourism industries – are being severely hampered by the deplorable road condition.

“We used to have day tourist but they have stopped coming as there are no taxis to take them in,” lamented Ceylon Clayton, president of the Little Bay Citizens Association. “Fish sales is also affected immensely as buyers can’t come in to purchase the fish and with tourism down the income of the residents are down too, so not even them can buy the fish.”

Turning to the lack of water, residents complained that the “only means of potable water” is through the Rapid Response trucks.

“The last election before this one, they put down pipelines and dug up the road and then after that they removed the pipes,” said Osbourne Johnson, a resident.