…Ministers Ferguson, Allicock meet with residents

RESIDENTS of the mining communities of Region 10, who protested the deplorable state of their access roads and bridges for close to a week, were pacified on Wednesday by Minister within the Ministry of Public Infrastructure, Annette Ferguson, and Minister of Indigenous People’s Affairs, Sidney Allicock, who led a delegation of several regional leaders to visit the disgruntled residents. The delegation met with residents, bus drivers, and schoolchildren, who held placards, expressing their frustration over the state of the roads. Minister Ferguson, who also had a technical team from the Ministry of Public Infrastructure present, was able to see first-hand the deplorable state of the roads and access bridges.
She told the residents that a contractor has already been awarded the contract and works will commence as early as next week.

“I am here this morning to say to you that the Ministry of Public Infrastructure will commence work shortly on your road; it is not only the road we have to address, but we have to ensure the culverts are installed, and the necessary drains. As we speak right now there is a contractor, RIM Construction Company, they are actually mobilising at this point to commence work if not this weekend, early next week,” Ferguson said.
She added that she is cognisant of the situation and is aware of the effect it has on everyone, especially the children who are unable to travel to school in Linden. The residents however maintained that they had no other choice but to mount a protest action, because their communities have been ignored for years.
PATIENCE
Minister Patterson however requested that they exercise patience as the extensive repairs will not be completed overnight.
“We are just asking for your patience, we are just asking for your cooperation and things will get done.”
According to a senior engineer from the ministry, the contract covers repair works to all the major bad spots from Linden to Coomacka Mines, but the residents inquired about the road and the two deplorable bridges at Three Friends, which is a community five miles away from Coomacka. They claim that Three Friends has been forgotten for over two decades and no infrastructural upgrade has been done.
“Everything happens up to Coomacka, Three Friends, nothing happens, we have a bridge over the hill, this bridge has been under repairs since 2015 and it ain’t done yet, that one near to fall in the creek,” said community leader Robert Gentle. Gentle is also a bus driver, who led the community in the protest action.
He emphasised that there is nothing political about the action of the residents. “If you look here you will see different faces; everybody has their own political attachment, but we are here because we want we road and we bridge fix.”

He told the ministers that Regional Chairman, Renis Morian, had engaged residents during the second day of the protest and promised that 30 loads of sand will be placed on the road to commence repairs. This did happen, but as a result of the inclement weather, the aggregates were washed away and the road remains in the same state.
The residents however bemoaned the action taken by Morian and some other councillors, whom they claimed drove past the residents Wednesday morning. This upset the residents who then decided to block the road.
Morian however was at the time leading the team from the NDIA to other sections of Coomacka in search of the source of water, which has caused erosion in several sections of the community. He revealed that his intention was to go ahead and then engage the residents upon arrival of the ministers.
PPP BEHIND THE PROTEST
Meanwhile, Morian told this newspaper that the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) is behind the protest action.
“What I have recognised is that the PPP has turned this road and road works into a political situation; basically, this road has been like this for the past 20 years. The David Granger Administration coming into power has started doing work on the road. While all this noise and demonstration has [sic] been going on, the RDC, along with Government support, has been doing work on the road while the people are picketing. This is not just road; this has gone into the realm of the political,” Morian said.
Mayor of Linden Carwyn Holland and APNU+AFC Parliamentarian Jermaine Figueira, asked the residents to start a new relationship with the regional authorities. Figueira also encouraged them to monitor the contractor’s work to ensure it is up to standard.
“It is important that you as the residents see the scope of works and you have to monitor the works to ensure that it is done to the best of what you are expecting, because at the end of the day your taxes are being paid for these works; so you have to ensure that the work is done properly by whoever contractor is being awarded this contract,” he said.
Additionally, Minister of Indigenous People’s Affairs, Sidney Allicock, also posited similar sentiments of cooperation.
“We have to work together, we are all part of this process, we can only do things well if we are properly advised,” he said. He promised to continue visiting the people and to provide help in other areas.
The residents expressed satisfaction at the visit and say that [they] are confident that works on the road will commence shortly. They have been picketing over the state of their access road since last week Monday and bus drivers had commenced a strike. They revealed that the state of the road had increased the maintenance cost of their buses and the time it took to commute from Linden to the mines had doubled.