The PLP Wise Men of the East Speak to the Road Chaos and Traffic Nightmare as School Opens

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A student fight her way through trenchersm dtiches and pipes to get to school in the eastern New Providence. A traffic nightmare is underway as the raod them are digup everywhere.

Geno D – Dig Up 2011 by 242party

Statement by Fred Mitchell MP, Ryan Pinder MP, and William Nottage PLP Candidate St. Anne’s

Yesterday 5th September we observed the first day of school at Doris Johnson Senior School on Prince Charles Drive. We express our concern about the state of readiness of the road in front of the school and the accessibility of the school during what appeared to us to be a heavy construction period. The children returning to school had to run the gauntlet of road closures, unpaved roads, lack of directions, misinformation and blocked entrances.

The struggle for an education continues, road nightmare continues.

We were particularly concerned that the children had to cross over and between a tractor which was busy at work on the road while the children were navigating their way to school. This is a safety concern.

The government’s road improvement programme administration did not fulfil its promise which was to ensure that by the time school opened the road would in fact be fixed. This is symptomatic of the mismanagement of this so called road improvement programme which has led to chaos on our roads, mass inconvenience to the public, threats to the safety of pedestrians and motorists alike, and economic disaster for merchants everywhere the programme has been taking place.

In addition, the MP for Fox Hill wishes to draw to the attention of the public that the Sandilands Primary School grounds were not ready for the school opening. There is still the remains of construction on the site, refuse needs to be collected, and the debris from the Hurricane Irene has not been removed.

The government’s road improvement programme administration did not fulfil its promise which was to ensure that by the time school opened the road would in fact be fixed. This is symptomatic of the mismanagement of this so called road improvement programme which has led to chaos on our roads, mass inconvenience to the public, threats to the safety of pedestrians and motorists alike, and economic disaster for merchants everywhere the programme has been taking place.

In addition, the MP for Fox Hill wishes to draw to the attention of the public that the Sandilands Primary School grounds were not ready for the school opening. There is still the remains of construction on the site, refuse needs to be collected, and the debris from the Hurricane Irene has not been removed.

When Carl Bethel demitted office as Minister of Education he held a signing ceremony for the transfer of certain church held lands to the Sandilands School for the expansion of the school. The formalities of that have still not been completed and the Church is now threatening to take back the land if something is not done to bring the matter to a conclusion. This is a broken promise by the FNM administration.

These matters are known to the Minister of Education and are unaddressed. We in the PLP have pledged to double the size of the education budget in real terms over the five year term when we next get the opportunity to govern. Part of that will be a dramatic expansion and investment in pre-school education.