Prime minister of Jamaica and leader of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), Andrew Holnes,s says his administration has set aside J$40 billion to repair local roads over the next two years.

He made this announcement during his address at the JLP 80th annual conference held at the National Arena on Sunday, November 26.

“I know many of you come here to here what the JLP is going to do about the state of our local, secondary and community roads, Minister Montague went on, on and on, I thought he was the Minister of Economic Growth and Job Creation, telling you about all the wonderful high ways we are building but I know that local roads are a soar point, very soar point and that is why we have allocated JMD $40 billion over the next two budgets and we are going to divide that $40 billion in half, we are going to spend in the first year, $20 billion per constituency and we are going to fix the local roads in your area,”

PRIME MINISTER ANDREW HOLNESS

The prime minister stressed that the repair project will need to pass through the various channels for approval before work begins.

While noting that the funds allocated will not be enough to repair all the roads, he urged the members of parliament to use the model that has been approved by the Constituency Development Fund to hold consultations with every community in their constituency in order for the residents to advocate for the roads that need to be fixed.

“Every member of parliament should take this opportunity to engage with their constituents in having a reasonable and rational discussion about which road is going to be repaired in the first phase of this project,”

PRIME MINISTER ANDREW HOLNESS

Holness further noted that all MPs will be required to develop a consultation plan and submit it to the Office of the Prime Minister during the second week of January, in an effort to monitor the consultation process with their respective constituencies.