Mayor calls for potholes to be named in ‘honour’ of MPs
Published:Monday | April 15, 2024 | 12:07 AMBryan Miller/Gleaner Writer
Western Bureau:
The bad road conditions across Hanover have spurred Mayor of Lucea Sheridan Samuels to come up with the idea of naming the potholes along the roadways in ‘honour’ of the members of parliament (MPs) in the parish.
Dave Brown is the MP Hanover Eastern, while Tamika Davis is the MP for Hanover Western. Both represent the parish for the governing Jamaica Labour Party.
While making a presentation on traffic management in Hanover, during the agenda item of mayor’s announcements at last Thursday’s monthly meeting of the Hanover Municipal Corporation (HMC), Samuels, of the People’s National Party, highlighted the issue of the daily traffic snarls in the towns of Hopewell in Hanover Eastern, and Lucea, the parish capital, in Hanover Western. He also outlined efforts being made by the HMC, of which he is chairman, to address the concerns.
The mayor argued that traffic flow changes made in Lucea since December 2023 have been effective to date, but a build-up is now recurring daily as a result of traffic coming from west to east through Lucea – that is, from the Negril direction towards Hopewell.
Samuels blames the new daily build-up of traffic in Lucea on the lack of visibility of traffic police during specific hours of the day.
The mayor also made mention of the daily congestion in the Hopewell area, which, he said, is of great concern to all who use the thoroughfare. He argued that the congestion is a situation that can be avoided.
“We believe that the patching of critical areas of the Hopewell main road will make a big difference. Consequently, we will be writing to both members of parliament in Hanover, and the National Works Agency (NWA), to address this situation,” he stated.
“If you are traversing from Lucea to Montego Bay [in St James], which most people are doing, the major causes of the traffic congestion, especially within the town of Hopewell, are the potholes in that town square,” he stated.
‘Step up to the plate’
He made a call for the MPs, who he said were getting the funding to do patching of roadways, to “step up to the plate and do what is necessary”.
“There are some nasty potholes, and if I should name them, I would name these potholes off these members of parliament,” Samuels stated. “There are some nasty potholes that we have to face coming from Lucea to Montego Bay, and the funding (to patch them) is there, and they (the MPs) need to take care of it.”
He said he has witnessed an accident occurring on the main road in Bull Bay in the parish, caused by a vehicle hitting a pothole, which resulted in one of its front tyres blowing out and the vehicle spinning around in the road.
He called for something to be done, by the MPs and the NWA, about the plethora of potholes across the parish before they become the cause of further accidents, and even loss of life.