Dear Editor,

On more than one occasion when crimes have been committed in Santa Cruz the police have indicated that their movement has been hampered because of heavy traffic.

The Santa Cruz bypass is poorly indicated and is, to be honest, an apology for a bypass. Large trucks end up still traversing the town. The plain fact is that Santa Cruz needs a bypass worthy of the name.

When I lived in north-west Manchester and travelled west over the Christmas holidays, Santa Cruz was one of the towns that I was anxious to avoid. In fact, there are a few towns in Jamaica which I am always anxious to bypass: Savanna-la-Mar, Spanish Town, Linstead, Morant Bay, Spalding, Brown’s Town, and Port Maria.

A mayor presides over a council which is interested in matters like security, garbage collection, housing, transportation, libraries, cemeteries, sporting facilities, markets, and the like.

One of the interests of a mayor ought to be how fast people traverse the major towns of his/her parish. If a motorist is able to sail through the town, (s)he might one day stop, and that is another interest of a mayor/council — the attractiveness of the town and commercial activity.

Now, I don’t know if mayors/councils read what people write about their towns/parishes. I have already written about taxi/bus parks in Mandeville and Santa Cruz. I see no improvement. The “Number 1” taxi stand in Santa Cruz is much too small and another taxi stand is needed. A commuter should not have to spend an eternity just to exit the stand. Furthermore, it needs to be resurfaced and parking bays established.

The police usually do a good job in Santa Cruz in reorganising traffic at the end of the year, but even this can be improved. They need to have the road surface marked on Main Street and insist that traffic on the bypass move only in an easterly direction as far as the fire brigade station. Traffic on the section of Institution Drive where the library is located should only be in a southerly direction.

All the above came again to mind over the last two weeks. The St Elizabeth Municipal Council should have anticipated vending on both sides of Market Street in Santa Cruz for the three weekends of lockdown. Now, I don’t have a problem with street vending at certain times of year, but don’t allow any vehicular traffic, apart from access to the taxi stand from Main Street.

If my suggestions were to be acted upon I am sure that traffic flow in Santa Cruz would improve tremendously.

Norman W M Thompson

norms74160@gmail.com