It has been a rough road to travel in recent months for residents of Pilgrim Place, Christ Church, who complain that a growing number of potholes in their roadway leave little road for pedestrians and motorists to manoeuvre.
Equally frustrating, they protest, is the impact these potholes are having on their shrinking pockets due to damage to their vehicles.
Car owner Peter Hunte told Barbados TODAY he had to fork out over $500 to repair damage to his vehicle caused by the craters, which residents said had become more plentiful since the passage of Tropical Storm Harvey in mid August.
And Hunte called on the Ministry of Transport and Works to put the road tax he pays each year to good use.
“We pay $400 to 450 [in] road tax every year and for what? To see this happening? They [Ministry of Transport and Works] need to step up their programme and deal with this,” Hunte argued.
“Road tax is $400 per person and there are thousands of cars . . . they need to step up on this.”
Hunte, who has lived in the Pilgrim Place for 47 years, said the area had always been prone to flooding.
However, he said, he had never seen this many potholes decorating the roadway.
And he warned the authorities that unless repairts are done urgently, there could be serious injuries to motorists and pedestrians, including students.
“If you . . . see a truck come across or a car, you will swear blind that it will turn over because of the potholes,” he explained.
“My major concern is between 8:30 in the morning to 9 in the morning and then from 2:30 in the evening to 4 in the evening when kids are frequently passing this road to go home or to school,” he said.
Meanwhile, one pedestrian who requested anonymity told Barbados TODAY he often felt uneasy travelling on the road.
“Walking on the road is very, very hard. People shifting potholes and you got to go and run in the bush,” the elderly man commented.
“Nobody can’t walk, everybody has to slow down, so if I got to walk to get home . . . I would got to beg for a lift to get where I going.”
At Pug’s Shop, another resident related his sad story of extensive vehicular damage, without disclosing the cost.
He also said that members of the community had taken to filling the holes with marl and concrete as a temporary solution.
However, he said whenever there was another downpour, the craters would resurface, causing further frustration.
He said residents were upset, convinced that the ministry had no interest in easing their plight.
“That is Barbados all the time, you does pay your road tax, the roads get mash up and they don’t repair them, they don’t fix them, they don’t care about you,” the upset resident said.
