The Government, in one of its clearest indications that it wants parish councils o take more control in communities, said yesterday that central government would not continue supporting councils in repairing roads which fall under their control.

“Central government will not be able to continuously bail out the parish councils in terms of their responsibility to their citizens,” Information and Development Minister Donald Buchanan told journalists in response to a question on yesterday’s road block in Slipe, St Elizabeth in his South West St Elizabeth constituency.

“I am calling on the St Elizabeth Parish Council to use funds from the Road Improvement Fund, which is part of their annual allocation coming from motor vehicle licences to each parish council across the island, to do the repairs to the roads.”

For the second consecutive Monday, angry residents of Slipe blocked the Santa Cruz to Lacovia main road in the vicinity of the Lacovia bridge to protest bad roads in their community.

The demonstration, which police say started at 8:00 am and petered out just after 5:00 pm, inconvenienced large numbers of school children and adults going about their business. Many were forced to walk more than a mile from one end of the blockage to the next to get transportation, while motorists were forced to divert long distances.

Buchanan, addressing the media after the weekly meeting of the Cabinet, said he was not surprised that the residents blocked the roads which, he insisted, were the responsibility of the St Elizabeth Parish Council, and demanded that the council respond to the residents.

He said that as the member of parliament, he had intervened on two occasions to have the roads repaired with central government funds.

“The roads are the responsibility of the parish council, and they must respond to the needs of the people,” said Buchanan. “That is why you have a mayor of Black River, that is why you have a chairman of the St Elizabeth Parish Council, so that where the needs of citizens arise, parish councils, which are clamouring for more and greater autonomy, and are given that autonomy, have to respond to the needs of the people.”

Asked whether he felt that the council had enough funds to repair the roads, Buchanan said that was not his responsibility and suggested that the question should be directed to the mayor of Black River.

“It is not my responsibility to run the parish councils. That is the responsibility of the mayor and the administration of the parish council,” he said. “They get the money. What they do with it is a different matter.”

But Buchanan announced that the Cabinet yesterday approved over $405 million worth of road work contracts, including approximately $50 million to be spent on roads in Maggoty and Redground in St Elizabeth.

He admitted that a portion of the $405-million would be spent on parish council roads although the contracts will be monitored by central government’s National Works Agency.

The contracts will cover the parishes of St Elizabeth, Manchester, Clarendon, St Thomas, Portland, St James, St Catherine, St Andrew and St Mary.

The protestors in St Elizabeth yesterday used motor vehicles and, in some instances, debris to block the road. They said they were demanding the presence of their political representatives, Buchanan and North East St Elizabeth MP Roger Clarke, to report to them on plans for the Slipe road. Neither turned up. Some protestors insisted that they would continue blocking the road until their grouses are heard.

The police reported no incidents and Superintendent Maurice Robinson, the chief of police in St Elizabeth, told the Observer that the constabulary deliberately took “a conciliatory and mediatory approach” to the demonstration.

Residents have been complaining for years about the road through Slipe – a low-lying community, in the Black River Morass. They argue that even at the best of times the horrendously pot-holed road is close to impassable and becomes especially bad after rainfall.