Transport woes for Fairy Valley

By Maria Bradshaw

mariabradshaw@nationnews.com

Residents of Fairy Valley, Christ Church, say access to public transportation has become nothing but a myth.

From schoolchildren to the elderly in the close-knit community are suffering daily because public service vehicles (PSVs) which have permits to travel the area are refusing to do so, opting instead to go off-route to more lucrative places.

Residents are therefore forced to walk a strenuous two miles to and from their homes, car pool or rely on friends, family or even strangers to give them “a lift”.

“The vans mark Fairy Valley but they don’t come out here. They bypass us and go up to the airport and Sam Lord’s Castle which is offroute, because they say that is where the money is,” an elderly woman lamented.

“They have our faces marked and when we put out our hands, they say they are not going up there, ‘catch the van behind’ and the van behind say the same thing. So we can be out there for hours,” she added.

Community activist Earley Yarde bemoaned the situation, saying it was taking a toll on residents, some of whom have lost their jobs, arrived home from school late or are forced to leave home as early as 7 a.m. to take the only Transport Board bus which travels through the district before the other bus at midnight.

“We have called the Transport Authority. The residents of Fairy Valley went through every avenue possible to get this matter rectified and no one is coming to our aid. This is something that needs to be addressed as urgently as possible.

“The vans put out Fairy Valley residents here at the corner of Parish Land so they have no alternative but to walk for two miles to get home,” he told the Weekend Nation.

Tired

Yarde admitted that the road leading to the community was “atrocious” but said that was not the reason why the vans were refusing to travel there.

“There was a lot of construction going on at the airport with a lot of big trucks that were doing work at the back of the airport. They caused some of that damage, and all the persons come and do was fill-in, so the road is bad.

“The vans put the people off at Parish Land, then they have to walk Thyme Bottom and then Wilcox Hill and then up to Fairy Valley, or some of them drive to the church at the corner and put off the people, but that is still a long walk,” he added.

A 15-year-old schoolgirl as well as other residents spoke about getting a “drop” to Oistins, Christ Church, on evenings but having to wait for two hours for a driver to decide to take them home.

“When I get home I am tired,” the girl cried.

Mother Charmaine Kirton said she too was forced to leave home as early as 7 o’clock on mornings to get the Transport Board bus to Bridgetown to board a minibus back to Newton, Christ Church, to work.

“If I don’t do that I would not be able to get to work. By the time I get home on evenings I am so tired, I don’t eat anything. All I can do is bathe and go to sleep because I have to get up early the next morning. My daughter is only 15 and she is stranded on evenings. It’s a serious thing especially with all of this crime and stuff.”

Fifty-three-year-old Margaret Yarde, who has lived in the area all of her life, said the lack of transportation had hampered her from moving around.

“I ain’t getting in no van and paying my $3.50 for them to put me off to walk home. The devil is a liar,” Yarde declared, as she recalled on occasions insisting to the driver that she was not getting out if she was not taken to Fairy Valley.

“You can imagine walking from the gas station all the way to Fairy Valley with groceries in your hands?” she asked with a sigh.

Pointing to a bus stop outside their home, Margaret’s daughter said it was just there for style.

“I don’t know the last time a van pull up here,” she said.

An 18-year-old girl, who did not want to be identified, recalled how she was accosted on her way home by two men and two women two years ago while walking along the dark and bushy road because the van refused to take her to Fairy Valley.

She said the scary situation remained with her to this day.

Shakira Scott, who operates a hair and nail salon, said the situation was affecting her business as many of her clients did not have transportation and were unable to get a PSV to come to her.

“Right now, my business is struggling because nobody don’t want to take the long walk to come to me and then can’t get a bus to leave. This is unfair,” she said.

Her friend, who was visiting from the United Kingdom, also spoke about the hardship of getting to and from Fairy Valley.

“I don’t understand how you are paying them bus fare and then they telling you to get off and walk. If they have permits to travel this route, they should travel this route,” she stated.

Please see also Page 5.

By Maria Bradshaw mariabradshaw@nationnews.com

The parliamentary representative for Christ Church East is calling for the brakes to be applied to public service vehicles (PSVs) which are licensed to ply the 3D route to Fairy Valley and Parish Land, Christ Church, but refusing to go into Fairy Valley.

Wilfred Abrahams, who is also the Minister of Home Affairs, said their permits should be revoked.

“If you the licensee are unable or unwilling to complete the entire route for which you are licensed, that licence should be revoked and issued to someone else who is prepared to service the entire route,” a frustrated Abrahams told the Weekend Nation.

For the past several years, operators of most, if not all, of the 47 vans licensed for that route, have taken it upon themselves not to travel to Fairy Valley, leaving several commuters stranded and frustrated. Instead, they bypass the rural community, forcing adults and children to disembark and walk at least two miles to get to their homes, while the vans travel instead to the more lucrative airport, Sam Lord’s Castle and Kirtons, St Philip routes, areas not listed on their permit.

Put out at Pilgrim Road

Two years ago, Abrahams tested this situation by boarding one of the vans. He was unceremoniously put out at the Pilgrim Road gas station and told that he would have to walk to Fairy Valley.

“That is an ongoing issue that I have been trying to get resolved,” he said when contacted about the matter. “It is frustrating for the residents, it is also frustrating for me. The people from Fairy Valley are not being properly served by the PSVs with licences to run that route . . . . No one can be in any doubt how I feel about this dishonest practice.

“I have spoken about it on numerous occasions, in public and in Parliament, expressing the frustration of and inconvenience to the commuters. I have recently again addressed it with the DPM (Deputy Prime Minister Santia Bradshaw, who is also Minister of Transport and Works), who has assured me that the Transport Authority is aware and that action is being taken to address this.”

Calling the practice “reprehensible”, Abrahams said he recently spoke to the residents “and assured them that I will see this resolved and I intend to do just that”.

When contacted, Ruth Holder, Director of the Transport Authority, said she too, had spoken to Bradshaw about the situation. She called on the residents to provide them with the necessary information.

“The Authority is aware of these complaints, and as recently as Friday, November 10, 2024, I reached out to the permit owners based on the information provided by the staff of the Authority and addressed those issues.

“It is, however, important that those residents who are impacted and denied service to provide specific information, namely, the date, time and vehicle registration number to the Authority. In that way, the appropriate action can and will be taken.”

She added: “The Authority will today be issuing reminders to [the holders of ] the 47 permits that are authorised to ply this route with reference to the terms and conditions under which the permit must be operated under.”

Amoy Gilding-Bourne, the Democratic Labour Party’s spokesperson on agriculture, who has relatives in Fairy Valley and announced she “is running for the Christ Church East” in the next General Election, said it was unfair to the more than 300 people living there.

“There is a blatant lack of reliable public transport. A lot of the times the vans come up and they don’t want to come directly up into Fairy Valley. They may go Parish Land, they may go Thyme Bottom and if you could imagine, we have over 300, or more so, residents within the area.

“You have the elderly, you have schoolchildren. You also have persons that do not have private transportation and depend on the kindness of their neighbours and so forth.”

Gilding-Bourne, an attorney, also lamented the state of the roads, suggesting this was one of the reasons why PSV operators were refusing to travel into the village.

“They are absolutely horrible and promises were made in 2022. Residents would like those promises to materialise, especially in relation to the roads and the lack of reliable public transportation,” she added.

However, Roy Raphael, chairman of the Alliance Owners of Public Transport, said he believed the Fairy Valley issue could be resolved “quickly” as PSV operators plying a different route could travel to Fairy Valley.

“There is a route called 1S that can service the Fairy Valley route. Those vans go through St Christopher and terminate in Silver Sands. Why not go up the hill? The mistake they made was to allow these vans that are competing with Sam Lord’s Castle and Kirtons to go down into Fairy Valley. What I am saying is they created a new route called 1S that goes the same way the No. 11 bus goes.

“So what they can do is to allow 1S to go up Wilcox Hill or the route of Fairy Valley, and come back down Wilcox Hill and go into Bridgetown,” he said, adding he sent this proposal to the Transport Authority but it had not been acted upon.