Castle Drive has non-existent road

THE EDITOR, Madam:

The residents of Castle Drive, a community in the hills of West Rural St Andrew, are lamenting the poor condition of what they refuse to call a roadway. The almost two-kilometre stretch, which connects Castle Drive to Seaview Road in Stony Hill, according to the residents, saw the last bout of asphalt sometime in the 1970s and since then has not been repaired, except the occasional patchwork by a few residents who have become weary of waiting on their elected representatives to take action.

The quiet residential community, which is made up of primarily senior and middle-aged citizens, is wondering if the community they chose to make home was an ill-fated decision, with the even bigger problem – where do they go from here? A resident with whom we spoke cites lacklustre representation as the root cause of their dismay and believes that the member of parliament reportedly is not interested in repairing the roadway because it offers no political merit.

With the passing of Hurricane Beryl, which left several land slippages and erosion along the banks of the broken roadway, a severely bad situation has got even worse. And just when they thought it couldn’t get any worst the recent rains have made their drive home an absolute nightmare.

A petition was made in July this year to have the roadway repaired under the SPARK Programme – a government initiative geared towards rehabilitating roadways across Jamaica. However, residents claim that since the meeting, no feedback has been given as to whether their petition was successful or not.

Residents are calling on the Government to intervene and are even willing to make monetary contributions if necessary, as they crave an end to their commuting nightmare. They say a trip from Stony Hill Square to Castle Drive by taxi, now stands at $800, for the drivers who are willing to risk the terrain while Uber, In Drive and other taxi services have simply refused to accept fares along the route, with even bearers forgoing delivery services.

CONCERNED RESIDENT