Residents in Jamestown Park, Holetown, St James, say they do not want royal treatment but only respect from management of the underconstruction Royalton Vessence Hotel just opposite their community.
They are fed up with being constantly impacted by the massive construction work and told the Sunday Sun they were being affected by the transportation of heavy equipment which sometimes prevented them from getting in and out of the neighbourhood, as well as the noise and dust.
The situation came to a head last Friday when several residents were blocked for over 40 minutes in their vehicles, unable to exit because a massive piece of equipment was being loaded onto a truck.
Steve Stoute, representative for the neighbourhood who liaises with management at Royalton, said they have had meetings to address the issues.
“For the last two or three days, the entrance to Jamestown Park has been blocked by large construction vehicles where no one could come in or go out. In my discussions with the Royalton management, they’re saying that those situations they didn’t have any control over because it was a broker employed by another company to ship large equipment, large tractors or whatever, to some other country.”
He added that residents bombarded him with complaints on Friday during the lengthy delay. A video from a frustrated resident showed several cars parked behind the huge truck transporting the equipment.
“I have asked the management who is the broker involved, that I could reach out and talk to the broker involved. If they have to do this, try to do it early in the morning because if an ambulance or even somebody with an emergency that wanted to get to a doctor . . . at least give us some notice. But again, the management is saying ‘we have no control’.”
Stoute pointed out that previously, cement trucks were also parked at the entrance of Jamestown, again hindering traffic.
He said management at Royalton also gave the excuse that it was not their trucks, but only delivering cement for them.
However, he said after discussions, arrangements were made for those trucks to park at the construction site.
“I arranged a meeting with residents and the chief executive officer of Royalton. It was a very cordial meeting. That was when the cement trucks were parking along the street. People were complaining about noise, working into the early hours of the morning. He said he would try to stop that,” Stoute stated.
Another disaster
Another resident said last Monday was another
disaster with trucks blocking the entrance which forced her to park her vehicle and walk into the neighbourhood from nearby Trents.
One said they were tired of the excuses from Royalton as it was the one building the hotel and ordering the equipment, “but every time something happens they say ‘it wasn’t me’”.
When contacted, Juan Zurita, of Royalton, said there were “isolated incidents, one on August 20 and another today (Friday). The August 20 incident was already discussed with the concrete company and they stopped parking there”.
Of Friday’s blockage, Zurita explained: “The movement of that machine depends on the local port company. There was an error when dispatching the truck that was supposed to take it to the port and it caused an incident for which we apologise.
“What is strictly prohibited is for trucks to arrive before 9:30 a.m., and between 4 p.m. and 6:30 p.m., so as not to affect traffic, in accordance with the conditions we have.”
Another employee, who did not wish to be identified, said the hotel was scheduled to be completed by the end of November but additional work would continue as Royalton had committed to reconstruction of the sidewalks on both sides of Holetown Road, as well as beautifying the area around the lake.
“We don’t block the road every day. This is a construction zone. We had two meetings with the residents and we explained to them everything that would be going on. It’s not a secret.
“There was a truck this morning which came to remove a machine to carry it to the port. It was a 35 000-tonne machine so we took a little while to get it out,” he said, adding that an alternative route was made available for residents to use. (MB)
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