PNP’s Campbell calls on Morgan to repair Cave to Kentucky road
WESTMORELAND, Jamaica — Member of Parliament for Westmoreland Eastern, Dr Dayton Campbell, has expressed his support for residents of Cave who are protesting the “deplorable, near impassable” conditions of the Cave to Kentucky road.
Noting that the road was approved under the Government’s own SPARK road rehabilitation programme but remains undone due to what he described as reckless budgetary mismanagement, Campbell said the people of Westmoreland Eastern have had enough.
“Westmoreland Eastern was the site of Hurricane Melissa’s landfall. The destruction to the road network was severe and immediate. Seven months later, not a single repair has been carried out. Farmers cannot move produce. School children face dangerous daily journeys. Emergency services are impeded. Entire communities are effectively cut off,” a PNP release said on Friday.
“The Cave to Kentucky road alone carries an estimated cost of $175 million yet the constituency’s total SPARK allocation stands at a little over $300 million, against approved road estimates totalling a billion. The numbers simply do not add up, and it is ordinary Jamaicans who are paying the price,” it added.
Dr Campbell said he is calling on the Minister of Works, Robert Morgan, to address the plight of the people of Cave to Kentucky.
He also pointed to the National Works Agency’s Chief Executive Officer, Everton Hunter, who he said told the Public Administration and Appropriations Committee (PAC) this week that hundreds of roads approved under the SPARK programme will not be completed due to budgetary shortfalls.
“They approved the roads before doing the estimates, which is the backwards way of doing it,” Dr Campbell added. “The road network has been devastated. We have not had any repairs to those roads coming out of the hurricane and it is in dire need.”
Dr Campbell and residents are now urging the Ministry of Works and Transport to provide an immediate response, allocate supplementary funding and begin rehabilitation works on the Cave to Kentucky road without further delay.
