HOLEY HELL!
Residents frustrated as neglect leaves Oakland Crescent in ruins
Published:Friday | November 1, 2024 | 12:08 AMAsha Wilks/Gleaner Writer
A pumpkin vine growing in one of the potholes and scattered uprooted aloe vera plants paint a picture of neglect along Oakland Crescent in Payne Land, St Andrew, where residents are growing increasingly frustrated by the deteriorating road conditions leading to their homes.
Frequently afflicted by flooding due to a gully along Waltham Park Road that overflows on to the roadway during periods of heavy rainfall, the residents said they are often inconvenienced.
“A pure water dig it up, y’know. Water weh come from the gully come right down [and] carry dead dog and everything down here,” one resident told The Gleaner on Thursday, looking at the state of the roadway.
Seventy-six-year-old Trevor ‘Bunny’ Francis explained that it has been difficult for him to use the roadway whenever it floods because he suffers from glaucoma in both eyes. Fearful that he could seriously hurt himself if he falls into one of the potholes, he depends on others to guide him whenever he ventures out.
NOBODY CARES
“Me fed up a it, man,” he said, adding, “Nobody nuh business wid we [because] we nuh block road and we nuh gwan bad.”
Francis said his house is also flooded at times despite his attempts to prevent it by placing a sheet of zinc at the gate to block water and debris from the flooded roadway.
Residents report that while most motorists have begun using alternative routes, those who do venture into the area are driving on the sidewalks. Homeowners have taken to parking their vehicles at the top of the road and walking the rest of the way to avoid damaging their cars.
One resident shared with The Gleaner that the community has been enduring the poor road conditions for at least three years. She noted that patchwork repairs have not occurred in years, and the last time the road was rehabilitated, the repairs failed to hold up due to heavy rains.
Another resident mentioned that the road conditions have also affected garbage collection, which is now done only every three months.
The Gleaner was unable to reach Payne Land Division Councillor Devon Jackson for comment on Thursday. However, Eugene Kelly, councillor of the neighbouring Whitfield Town Division, said it is one of the roadways that St Andrew South Western Member of Parliament Dr Angela Brown-Burke has submitted for repairs under the Government’s $45-billion Shared Prosperity through Accelerated Improvement to our Road Network (SPARK) Programme.
“I know for a fact that both the member of parliament ... and the councillor ... were supportive of residents in the consultation, and they did, in fact, submit to the Government agencies that road for it to be rehabilitated in the SPARK Programme,” he said.
NO SPARK YET
“I can tell you, both Mr Jackson and Dr Brown-Burke are very concerned and very upset at the slow speed at which it has taken for the matter to be dealt with. We thought the SPARK Programme would have started to spark by now, but it hasn’t,” Kelly added.
Brown-Burke informed The Gleaner that within her constituency, she submitted five roads for rehabilitation and Oakland Crescent was “priority” and “top of the list”.
“I did a meeting with leaders and the councillors, and it came up as the number one. Even councillors who were not from that division, individuals who were not from that division but knew the area thought it (Oakland Crescent) was really very bad, and we went to the SPARK consultation, and everybody spoke about it as well,” she said.
During a post-Cabinet press briefing on Wednesday, works minister Robert Morgan said the SPARK Programme would commence before year-end.
He stated that over 600 community roads were submitted for repair and that consultations has been had with 62 of 63 constituencies so far.
The minister also noted that within the coming weeks, a website, which is being finalised, is expected to go live, making public the timelines for which each road will be completed.