IRWIN, St James – Scores of angry residents of this rural community yesterday blocked sections of the roadway leading to the Irwin High School in protest over its dilapidated condition.

Traffic was brought to a halt as rocks, trees and old vehicle parts were thrown across the roadway forcing scores of students and teachers to make the two-mile journey on foot amid an early morning drizzle.

“Wi fed up with the situation,” the residents fumed.

They pointed fingers at developers of the adjoining Irwin Point housing development, WAW Development Limited, whose workers they say dug up their original roadway to widen the road and instal drains, but left without completing the work.

“We gave them time to fix it,” they shouted, adding that the road, which had further deteriorated due to the regular use by heavy-duty vehicles contracted to the housing developers, had been in its present condition for two years.

They said their pleas to the developers had fallen on deaf ears even as they continued to spend thousands of dollars on medical expenses for their children who were severely affected by the dust.

But yesterday, WAW principal Clasford Woolery accused the residents of being mischievous. He said they had already installed the drains, marled, rolled and oiled the roadway and were awaiting imported culverts to complete the drains before asphalting the surface.

“Within another month or so everything should be okay,” he told the Observer.

According to him, it was the bad habits of the residents that had caused the further deterioration of the roads.

“The taxi men drive like [they are on a] racetrack and damage the road,” he claimed. “It would be foolish for us to go and patch it again before it is asphalted.”