Over $215 million will be spent to rehabilitate the roads in the Scotland District over the next few years.
Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley made this disclosure on Monday as she addressed the official re-opening ceremony of the St. Joseph Outpatient Clinic, at Horse Hill, St. Joseph.
Ms. Mottley told the gathering: “Very shortly, you will hear the announcement… [about] the largest rehabilitation of roads in the Scotland District since this country was an independent nation.
“With the partnership of the Chinese Government, and COMPLANT in particular, we intend to undertake over $215 million in road works over the next few years, ensuring that the erosion and the slippage that has taken place in the Scotland District can be stabilised and that we do not need to feel that we are in a competition with Disneyland if you are driving from Andromeda to Bath.”
The Prime Minister stressed that the delivery of effective and efficient services to Barbadians was critical to Government, and underscored the importance of decentralising services.
She continued: “We believe fundamentally…that services are best delivered at the level of the community and that this notion of the centralisation of services is one that the Government, which I have the honor to lead, rejects….
“The decentralisation of services is all fundamentally about prevention and it is to that that I want this country to start to recognise and to literally apply itself to. We can become world class by 2027, but we have some things to fix, and failure to recognise them and failure to fix them is as dangerous as leaving a building that was derelict here….”
Ms. Mottley highlighted the partnership between the Ministry of Health and Wellness and the Office of the Attorney General and lauded the team for completing the work in less than three months.
Attorney General Dale Marshall and Member of Parliament for St. Joseph also praised the officials of both ministries and the team for their outstanding work. Commenting on the multi-ministry approach, he continued: “I hear it doesn’t happen often. It may never have happened before. But the work that Major Headley and his project unit did on getting this delivered, perhaps speaks about a model, Prime Minister, that as a country we can use, and making sure that other projects like this come in on time and in budget,” he suggested.
Mr. Marshall said the new medical facility was bigger and better than the previous one, and a gazebo had been built to accommodate those patients who arrived before the clinic opens.
“They no longer have to bear the sun and the rain. They can sit there in comfort. I think this is going to be a model for all the other polyclinics that you will do,” he noted.
The Attorney General disclosed that Digicel had committed to giving a hot spot there, so patients would have internet access.