Dionne Rose, Staff Reporter
Derrick Simon (right), president of the Stock Farm Citizens Association and Member of Parliament Andrew Gallimore, address members of the community about bad road conditions during a meeting at the Golden Spring community centre on Thursday. - Rudolph Brown / Chief Photographer
MEMBERS OF the Stock Farm Citizens Association in Golden Spring, St. Andrew, were told by Member of Parliament, Andrew Gallimore that a major road in their community which has not been fixed for 21 years would not be repaired any time soon.
The residents turned out on Thursday at the meeting, scheduled for 1:00 p.m., expecting to hear from Mr. Gallimore, and a representative from the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation (KSAC), how the $8.4 million needed to repair the roads would be funded.
"It is something that brings us collective embarrassment," Mr. Gallimore told them, but he could not say when the road would be fixed.
He said that for the past five years he has been lobbying for the road network in the constituency to be improved: "I have spoken in Parliament many times on the issue."
One angry resident exclaimed, "When they want to find the money to do things they find it ... if the KSAC was seriously interested they could do much more than what they are doing."
In reacting Richard Jones, a representative of the Social Development Commission (SDC) noted that all over the Corporate Area and Jamaica, there was a "crisis in terms of the state and conditions of the infrastructure".
"We in the SDC feel that in order to confront this thing we have to look at whole question of governance through new ideas."
Meantime, Derrick Simon, president of the citizens association, assured the community members that the meeting was just the start of their battle for community improvement.
