RESIDENTS of Constitution Hill in St Andrew East Rural are upset that their calls for repairs to the roads in the community have been ignored for so long.

On a recent visit to the area the Jamaica Observer was met by angry residents who said they have repeatedly aired their concerns but nothing has changed.

According some residents, if they had the resources they would fix the roads themselves because their cries to political representatives for help over many years seem to have fallen on deaf ears.

One elderly man claimed that many people have opted to park their motor vehicles because of the bad roads.

“Everybody complains. People have to be parking their car one side because the front end cost too much to fix. It is really a problem to go to and from; sometimes people have to wait hours to get where they want to go because of the bad roads.

“Some taxi drivers hardly want to carry us, especially if you have any load to carry; they are thinking about dropping in the potholes. They want to charge us extra, but we can’t pay more. We would love to see the Member of Parliament Juliet Holness come in and see what we are talking about,” said the elderly man.

A female resident claimed that the last time the roads from Papine to Constitutional Hill received a good fix was during the tenure of Oliver Clue, who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) from 1993 to 2002.

“The road from Papine to here is a disaster, as if we don’t have any representative here. We don’t see anybody until it is time for election. We are looking to see them soon.

“I even stopped going to community meetings because what the younger generation says doesn’t count; to me, it is a waste of time. That is bad, because this is a developing community and the younger generation is building back their community. They need to invest in the road. It makes no sense you have people coming home with their brand new car and in one week they have to go to the mechanic. We want that to change,” said the woman.

She was supported by a female business owner who pointed to a need to fix the retaining walls on the road.

“The road has been like this for a few years well. We need walls because up here has lots of gully and a lot of walls were torn down in the past. Because of the road you have to pay the taxi man different if you want him bring up your shop goods.

“The fare is normally $150 but they may charge you even $1,200 to bring up the goods because the road is bad. I can’t say that they are thieves. If the road bad and vehicle a mash up, when it mash up, parts expensive,” reasoned the shop operator.

The resident further alleged that children have to pay $150 in taxi fare from Papine to Constitution Hill — and many times the drivers cram them in the trunk of their vehicles.

“They need buses up here. I wouldn’t feel good to see my daughter sitting around a car trunk with boys and other girls, it is not appropriate to me,” said the woman.

A visitor to the area (who gave her name only as Beverley) said she is on holiday from the United States, and each time the car she travels around in falls into one of the potholes she thinks to herself that had she been pregnant, she would have lost the child.