Mayor extends opening hours for Old Harbour transportation centres to ease traffic congestion

The mayor's declaration comes amid complaints by licensed public passenger vehicle (PPV) operators during a parish council town hall meeting at the Old Harbour High School auditorium on February 26.

New operating hours will see both Darlington and East street parks opening 5:30 am and closing 9:00 pm Mondays to Saturdays, which should ease traffic congestion during evening rush hour. Previous operating hours was 6:00 am to 6:00 pm.

The old timeframe has created a conundrum for PPV operators, particularly those who work before or beyond the prescribe hours.

During the meeting businessman Andrew Hanna, owner of a fleet of public passenger vehicles, echoed the cries of his colleagues who are largely being blamed for the frequent traffic congestion in one of the island’s fastest growing towns serving a population of approximately 50,000 people.

“We need to know what time is the opening and closing hours for the bus park, because many mornings after seven o’clock, that bus park at East Street, the barrier is still padlocked. Many evenings by six o’clock the barrier is padlocked. Nobody is there and the police are still there ticketing taxi drivers to go in there. So, how can we get a ticket when the barrier is padlocked?” he said.

The concern raised by Hanna is nothing new. In fact it has become an age-old problem since the rapid urbanization of Old Harbour began to take shape over a decade ago.

And it is a “legitimate” concern the mayor admitted before his proclamation.

“I am going to be saying it here now that effective the 1st March (this) Friday we are going to be opening the park 5:30 am and we’ll close it at 9:00 pm,” he said to rousing applause from the audience.

Over the years PPV operators have felt hard done by the police, claiming there are deliberately targeted by the state as an income generating stream. 

Acting Deputy Superintendent of Police Carey Duncan, sub-officer in charge of the Old Harbour police division, refuted such a claim, however.

According to the Acting DSP, while he understands the concerns about the operational hours of the park, the disorderly behaviour of the operators is equally distressing and cannot be encouraged.

“I have a conscience and I find it hard sometimes to write the ticket. But that is not my concern really (the park operational hours), my concern is when the operators block-up the road, because I know you have to operate and I don’t have a problem with that.

“But if you do it in an orderly manner then we won’t have any confrontation.

“So if it is after six o’clock and the park is locked I have spoken to my officers to say ‘listen it’s after six o’clock, the park is locked and they don’t have anywhere to go. But if they are obstructing the traffic then we have to take certain actions’.”

The mayor also urged the public to utilise the park to help reduce traffic congestion. This he believes will boost the municipality’s income generated from the parks.

“When we check our list there are more than 500 public transportation that operates out of Old Harbour and if we collect $200 per day is $100,000 that is to be collected per day. And I’m telling you we don’t collect $100,000 for the month and these public transportation are on the road every day,” Mayor Scott said.