Dr Dayton Campbell, Member of Parliament for Eastern Westmoreland, is standing shoulder to shoulder with protesting residents of Cave as he issues a direct challenge to Minister of Works Nesta Morgan: fix the Cave to Kentucky Road now. Approved under the Government’s own SPARK Programme yet left completely undone due to reckless budgetary mismanagement, the road remains in a deplorable, near-impassable state, compounded by the devastating impact of Hurricane Melissa and the people of Eastern Westmoreland have had enough.

Eastern Westmoreland was the site of Hurricane Melissa’s landfall. The destruction to the road network was severe and immediate. Seven months later, not a single repair has been carried out. Farmers cannot move produce. Schoolchildren face dangerous daily journeys. Emergency services are impeded. Entire communities are effectively cut off. The Cave to Kentucky Road alone carries an estimated cost of  $175 Million, yet the constituency’s total SPARK allocation stands at a little over $300 Million, against approved road estimates totalling a billion. The numbers simply do not add up, and it is ordinary Jamaicans who are paying the price.

“I fully understand the frustration of the people from Cave because the road is in a deplorable state. It is almost impassable,” said Dr Campbell. “I am calling on the government, calling on the Minister of Works, Minister Nesta Morgan, to address the plight of the people of Cave to Kentucky. We have been betrayed”

The scale of the Government’s misstep is damning. The National Works Agency’s own Chief Executive Officer, Mr E.G. Hunter, confirmed before the Public Administration and Appropriations Committee (PAC) this week that hundreds of roads approved under the SPARK Programme will not be completed due to this budgetary shortfall. Roads were promised. Commitments were made. Communities were told help was coming. It was not.

“They approved the roads before doing the estimates, which is the backwards way of doing it,” Dr Campbell added. “The road network has been devastated. We have not had any repairs to those roads coming out of the hurricane, and it is in dire need.”

Dr Campbell and the residents of Eastern Westmoreland are demanding an immediate response from the Ministry of Works and Transport. The Government must honour its commitment to the SPARK Programme, urgently allocate supplementary funding, and begin repairs to the Cave to Kentucky Road without further delay. The people of Eastern Westmoreland have waited long enough.