THINGS are not perfect in St Andrew North Eastern but from the perspective of Member of Parliament Delroy Chuck, there is much to celebrate.

Among them are the decline in gang warfare in the Grants Pen, Barbican and Shortwood areas; that all the inner-city communities have access to electricity and piped water; and that several roads have been repaved.

“Crime and violence is significantly down in the community. What we do have is petty crime, especially young men holding up householders, taxi drivers and motorists. To the best of my knowledge it’s not a group activity, it’s a sort of individual stealing, [but] we certainly have no gang warfare, which was not the case when I just went there [in 1996],” he told the Sunday Observer.

The strategy he used was to engage the communities in sports competitions.

“What we did was to have football and other sports competitions to get all the corners to interact and work together. We had numerous competitions between Grants Pen, Barbican and Shortwood,” he said, adding “I spent most of my time trying to defuse crime and violence in the community.”

Chuck was responding to concerns raised by some of his constituents that acts of crime and violence made them feel unsafe and chased businesses away. The constituents also raised issues related to poor road conditions in some areas, the effects of the restrictions imposed by national water provider National Water Commission and the commercialisation of residential areas.

As regards the roads, Chuck said several of them — such as those in Graham Heights, Millsborough, Drumblair and Jacks Hill — have been repaired in the last two years and that there are plans to fix the remaining ones in the course of the next two years with funds from the loan from China, which will be repaid through the gas tax.

“Over the last couple years we have fixed a number of roads and have provided first class roads. We’re not patching, we want to just fix the roads properly so we’re going very slowly. We expect them to last in excess of five or eight years.

“The roads in Graham Heights and Birdsucker are in the best condition they have ever been in the past 30 years, but the Cherry Gardens roads, for example, have become thoroughfares and because of the excessive usage a number of potholes have developed,” he said.

The MP also spoke of a programme through which he — via the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) — residents, and the Kingston & St Andrew Corporation (KSAC) each contribute a third of the cost to fix particular roads.

“I have invited every single community to provide a third of the cost of fixing their roads but only four communities have come forward so far. Wilmington Road off Jack’s Hill is one example. The community provided $1.2 million, I provided $1.2 million from the CDF and the KSAC provided $1.2 million and it is a first-class road,” he said.

Chuck’s hope as regards the shortage and consequent scheduling of water is that by next year there won’t be any need to restrict the commodity.

“Government has a $19-billion water improvement programme to come on stream during the course of this year and next year,” said Chuck. “Once the improvements are complete, it should bring an additional 20 million gallons of water to the city.”

“It is something that the Government is concerned about and it is currently discussing plans to dam all the rivers in Jamaica and store water for long periods… If the programme is properly executed this year we won’t have any water problems come next year, even if there is a drought,” he said.

The MP bragged that there is no household in his constituency that does not have access to piped water and to electricity.

“There is no household in North eEst St Andrew that doesn’t have water or water pipes now. About eight years ago, we ensured that water was connected to every inner-city community. Every community now has water, a steady supply of electricity, and the community has been provided with direct electrical connection and water meters.

“We are presently repairing streetlights that are not working in the community. We have done all of Grants Pen and are now going through the rest of the constituency to see which ones are defective and having the [Jamaica Public Service] effect the repairs,” he said.