MANDEVILLE, Manchester — Councillors in this parish have drawn the ire of Manchester Central Member of Parliament (MP) Rhoda Crawford over what she describes as their inadequate response to road rehabilitation.

According to Crawford, road infrastructure development would take place at a much faster rate if the councillors were pulling their weight.

“If the councillors were paying more attention to their community roads and the roads that are within their jurisdiction, and they were working as hard or pushing as hard… If they would look outside and try to seek funding from the private sector and some other groups like I have had to do… If they were doing half as much or pushing as much as I am pushing, then the road infrastructure would improve at a much faster rate,” said Crawford.

The first-term MP said she has had to respond to fixing the parochial and main roads at various intervals, using criteria such as the volume of traffic and the condition of the roads.

“What I have had to be doing in the short space of time is… I have to be doing a serious balancing act to try to spread whatever little resource I have. I have to spread it on NWA [National Works Agency] corridors and municipal corporation corridors,” she added.

“The constituency is very big, and almost every community you go into there is an urgent need for [road] repairs, but I will continue to do my best…Work will continue [this month] and in January,” she said.

Crawford said $3 million has been allocated to rehabilitate the road from Bellefield square to Davyton. Road repairs are also slated for the Ingleside community, and $8 million has been awarded from the Jamaica Bauxite Institute for roadworks in Comfort, Land Settlement, and Broadleaf.

But she said majority of these will be done next month, pointing to the allocation of $16 million made to each constituency for road patching, debushing, and drain-cleaning works for Christmas.

“The majority of the road-patching exercise will be done in January. There are quite a number of roadways that are in dire need of rehabilitation. The only road that we are going to repair in December, based on the status of it, is deCarteret Road,” she said.

Meanwhile, Councillor Jones Oliphant (People’s National Party, Mandeville Division) said he is aware of the deplorable condition of some roads in Mandeville and maintenance work will commence shortly.

“I am aware of them… all cannot be done now, but we will be doing some serious patching and road maintenance in a short while based on our commitment to the parish council roads in the division,” said Oliphant.

Brumalia Road, Wint Road, Newleigh Boulevard, and North Race Course Road are among the municipal roads (parochial) that Oliphant said are to be repaired.

“Estimates have been made, and we are looking as funds are available to complete them,” he said.

Oliphant added that the municipal corporation will not be interfering with main roads which are the responsibility of NWA. He said doing so can expose the municipal to trespassing charges.