ABOUT 200 angry residents of Slipe, South St Elizabeth, yesterday blocked the nearby Lacovia main road for the third time this year, to protest against what they described as the “horrible condition” of the Slipe main road.

The demonstration started about 10:00 am, with protesters using their bodies to block the thoroughfare near the Lacovia Bridge, causing a build-up of about two miles of traffic in either direction. The crowd only relented about an hour later when Deputy Mayor Shirley Myers arrived on the scene and promised that work on the main road would start today.

“I was afraid to go out there at first because the people were angry – and you can’t blame them – but the police said that they would take me,” Myers, the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) councillor for the Southfield Division, told the Observer.

“I told [the demonstrators] that the parish council does not have the money to rehabilitate the road, but assured them that by tomorrow [today] repair work would start on the road. The people listened to me attentively and said they would take my word for it and started going away,” Myers added.

The residents promised to continue their demonstration if work on the estimated five miles of damaged road – which has no paving – did not begin today as promised.

Mayor Franklin Witter told the Observer that the road could not be rehabilitated until the estimated $12 to $15 million from the Equalisation Funds had been allocated by the Local Government Ministry. However, he said temporary repair would start today.

“We will be doing some temporary work on the road until the funds are made available,” said Witter, who plans to table a resolution at next Tuesday’s Council meeting, which will call for the allocation of the funds by Local Government.

Witter said this latest demonstration – following on the heels of one last month – was sparked after $1.4 million allocated to start the repair work two months ago was allegedly diverted by People’s National Party Councillor Kern Smalling, under whose Black River Division falls the heavily JLP Slips community. The money was reportedly used to repair Pond Pen Road in the division last month.

Myers also charged that the community was overlooked because it is a JLP stronghold. “We must stop the politics and look out for each other,” Myers said. “We are all Jamaicans.”

Slipe is known for its heavy contribution to the local shrimp industry, which Witter and Dunstan ‘Freshy’ Bennett, a player in the industry, said was being affected by the bad road condition.

Bennett said that some customers – mainly hotels – were looking to other sources for their shrimp because of the damage done to their vehicles that traverse the Slipe main road.