Slipe Road closure irks business owners
BUSINESS OWNERS who operate along Slipe Road in Kingston were yesterday outraged at having not received adequate notice of the road’s closure to facilitate the premiere of Bob Marley: One Love, the Hollywood film about the reggae legend, at the Carib Theatre today.
The irate business proprietors say the road closure will cause them to lose thousands of dollars in revenue.
“Dem should have a town crier from week before last a go round and den now, near to the time like all Saturday and today now, den yuh go round and den yuh reaffirm it fi tomorrow,” Velma Spencer, manager of People’s Choice Wholesale, said.
“That is total slackness,” she added. Yesterday, the National Works Agency (NWA) announced temporary traffic changes on several roads in the Corporate Area to facilitate the Reinaldo Marcus Green-directed biopic.
The changes will be in effect from 12:00 p.m. today to 12:00 a.m.
The Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) will be enforcing the traffic changes.
However, Spencer explained that her wholesale, which has been in operation at that location since October last year, opens at 7 a.m. daily to late evening. But she said the road closure will force her to close early tomorrow, and as a result reduce her sales by more than half a million dollars.
She is adamant that businesses affected should be compensated.
CALL FOR COMPENSATION
Sharon Henry, who manages a shop along the stretch, shares the same sentiment.
“It nuh mek no sense dem close off the road because tomorrow now when we lock up wi lose our likkle customer dem. My shop is a likkle trusting shop where mi trust di people dem and dem pay mi pon weekend, so mi feel hurt bout dis, dem shudda compensate wi fi dis,” she said.
Additionally, the shop operator of 10 years said it was her customers who informed her of the impending road closure.
Charmaine Phillips, who runs a restaurant in the vicinity, is ruing the lunchtime crowd that she will lose because of the road closure.
“I’ve been asking customers and most of my customers are like driving customers who come in, there are people from the area who come and buy too, but mi nuh know weh mi aguh do tomorrow,” she said.
She explained that she starts preparation for her meals at 5 a.m. Today, she said she will only be able to provide breakfast for her customers, losing about $50,000 in lunch sales.
“We going to get a big loss,” she stated. “And nobody nuh come come seh nothing, mi just see it on Instagram. Somebody send mi di ting during the weekend and mi just see it again on Instagram a while ago.”
However, Derrick Martin, a tailor who has been operating his business in the area for the last 30 years, said he has no issue with the road closure.
“It aguh put a likkle ting pon it but weh mi nuh get today mi go get it the next day and if dem (customers) wah come, who supposed to come dem wi come di next day,” he told The Gleaner.
Further Martin said he understands the impact that the Bob Marley: One Love movie will have.
“Whatever is for Bob Marley is for Bob Marley, what I know is I happy for Bob Marley because (of) the legacy that he has today,” he said.
Meanwhile, Stephen Shaw, communications manager at the NWA, said he was unaware of whether or not the businesses located along Slipe Road were previously notified of its impending closure as “it’s a team of individuals or entities that have been involved in these discussions”.
“From our standpoint, decisions were made at a policy level and we are working with the police to implement same,” he said.
Shaw pointed The Gleaner to the JCF to ascertain why the decision to close Slipe Road was taken.
However, efforts to reach head of the Public Safety and Traffic Enforcement Branch in the JCF, Assistant Commissioner of Police Gary McKenzie, up to press time were unsuccessful.