Public Works Minister, Bishop Juan Edghill has cast the blame squarely at the feet of the Mayor and City Council (M&CC) for the state of roads and streets in the municipality. He made this disclosure in the Committee of Supply this afternoon, during his defence of monetary allocation for roadworks in 2022.
Opposition Member of Parliament, Annette Ferguson grilled the Minister to provide details on planned works and questioned whether monies have been appropriated for the repair of a road in Meadow Brook Gardens that has a pothole.
Edghill, in his response, reminded that it is City Hall’s responsibility to maintain municipal roads, while the Ministry overlooks the major access roads and highways. Ferguson is a former Public Infrastructure Minister.
“For a moment I thought the Honourable Member was at the City Council addressing the Mayor. The Ministry of Public Works has responsibility of maintaining public roads. The Mayor and City Council has the responsibility for other roads, just like the Neighbourhood Democratic Councils (NDCs) have the responsibilities for other roads.”
He added that while it is not primarily the first responsibility of the Ministry of Public Works to maintain these municipal roads, the ministry has still been taking the “cries and concerns” of the citizenry seriously.
“We have been making the necessary interventions, but we need to consistently remind: the billions of dollars that City Hall collects, they have a responsibility to maintain roads in the city, of which they have been doing zero!” Edghill said, while referencing the intervention of the Ministry in rectifying a collapsed structure along the Eastern Highway, Georgetown.
“We had to come in and fix that bridge. When the bridge at Denis Street collapsed, Sir, we had to do it, and you have seen over the period October, November and December, several crews from the Ministry of Public Works’ Maintenance Department, were still maintaining sections of roads and maintaining sections of roads across the city,” the Minister said.
Edghill advised Ferguson to provide the necessary information and the Public Works Ministry will “see how it can help”.
