Dear Editor,

The following is an open letter to Andrew Holness, prime minister:

Greetings to you and the Member of Parliament for the St Catherine South Western Everald Warmington. I wish to remind you of your promise in the 2023 budget.

The residents are cognisant of the office you hold and the mountain of issues you have to deal with. Issues to do with crime, health, education, and reassuring confidence in our tourism product. We note that you have given the dates for the local government elections to be held on the 26 of this month. The machinery seems to be in place, and we pray that Jamaicans would go out and exercise their constitutional rights.

The promise you made is that of fixing the bridge that leads to the Spring Village community. I see no commencement of work on the bridge. The promised bridge was not an election promise but one given in the budget.

Yes, there have been funds allocated to assist residents affected by flood damage after our bridge promise was made. And there have been repairs to roads in neighbouring communities and across the wider parish after our bridge promise was made. There has been large increases in government salaries, after our bridge promise was made.

Mr Prime Minister, I know you to be a man of your words. I sight one of the many incidents in which you came through on your promise. You fulfilled same to a St Elizabeth resident who needed a donkey to assist her with transporting her goods to the main road. We are mindful that you are human, and with the myriad promises on your desk it is possible for you to forget, or place at the bottom of your promise list. It has been an extremely difficult period since the loss of access to travelling on our smooth asphalted road. The alternate road to the community of Spring Village is travelling through the community of Nightingale Grove, which is an indictment of a donkey track.

The Jamaica Broilers chickens that traverse on that road has to endure dust and some dreadful potholes on the way to their destination.

The residents of Spring Village — and our neighbours in Nightingale Grove, whose track we are borrowing — are suffering. We would be delighted if you could fulfil or even start the promise before the local government election.

Please, Sir, deliver the promise.

Hezekan Bolton

c/o
Residents of Spring Village

h_e_z_e@hotmail.com