ST JAMES, Jamaica — Councillor for the Rose Hall division, Anthony Murray, has labelled the protest action taken by residents over poor road conditions in sections of the St James East Central constituency on Tuesday, as premature.
Residents blocked sections of the Sign to Adelphi main road and the Paisley road, among other areas, to protest what they said is the deplorable state of the roadway.
The protest action was concentrated in the Rose Hall and Somerton divisions of the constituency.

However, Murray, who is the councillor for the Rose Hall division, told Observer Online that there are plans to fix the roads, but the inclement weather over the past few months has delayed that process.

“Provisions would have been made for the roads to be fixed, the weather was what was impacting us and preventing us from doing same. Work would have started on this main road from months ago,” said Murray.

READ More: St James residents protest bad road conditions

“The Paisley road, Content, all these road allocations would have been made for them to be rehabilitated and so it was just for the weather to allow us to do it and as you can see, we just getting some good weather now and the works will start soon, so I just consider this to be really premature and inconsiderate.”

At the recent official opening of the Adelphi Health Centre, Member of Parliament for the area, Edmund Bartlett told the gathering that about $500 million has been allocated for work to be done for a number of roadways in the constituency.

He had explained that a section of the Paisley Bottom road had been fixed with concrete and that was a possible solution for other roadways in the area.

However, from as early as 5:00 am, residents used trees, boulders and other items to render sections of the roadway impassable for most of the morning hours.

Murray said their actions only served to negatively impact other community members who were impeded from doing what they had planned to do.

“What they have done is try to prevent the commuters from doing their lawful business and I just think that this activity is premature and irrelevant and the persons who are doing [it], I am asking that they desist from doing it because they are preventing persons from going about their lawful business,” he said.

However for some residents in the area, the action was necessary to drive home the point that the bad road conditions need to be addressed immediately.

“The other day my vehicle dropped in a pothole and burst the bumper, the road them bad man,” a motorist said.

Councillor Michael Allen (People’s National Party, Somerton Division), denied allegations that he was responsible for the protest action, stressing that it came to him as a surprise.

“As a councillor I don’t know anything about this roadblock and blocking the road don’t make no sense. Blocking the road only impede a lot of people from going to work and school and stuff like that,” he said.

He however said that while the roads are in a bad state, he has been informed that several roads in the area are set for rehabilitation.

“I heard that there will be some patching and we see that the foundation work has gone in but the rain has delayed things,” he said.

There are reports that residents plan to continue their protest action beyond Tuesday in an effort to get the issues addressed as soon as possible.

Police are said to be maintaining a strong presence in the area.