Jamaica was to have been "pothole-free by 2003". That did not happen. It does take cash to care. The current minister of finance in his Budget presentation announced that he had found a source for the cash for road maintenance. He would be extracting it from the pockets of motorists, users of motorised transport, and, therefore, all Jamaica, as an increase in the special consumption tax on fuel. There were no riots.

The minister told the nation on April 22: "... A portion of the increase in the SCT on fuel will be dedicated to the enhancement of the existing road-maintenance fund (RMF), which is currently funded by a portion of the annual receipt of motor-vehicle licences. This will be used for rehabilitating and repairing arterial roads islandwide. Many of these roads have been in a deplorable condition for many years due to the lack of a proper road-maintenance programme. In addition, there are many main roads which are also inaccessible as a result of hurricanes, dating as far back as Hurricane Ivan from 2004.

"The management of the RMF will be reviewed to incorporate an oversight board, which will include representatives of various stakeholders, such as transport operators, taxi associations and other civic groups."

Only a suspiciously low 20 per cent of the SCT is earmarked for road maintenance in the first year. Special funds have come and gone and God, He knows, what they have accomplished. This one must not be allowed to come and go and be forgotten. While fancy highways have been built - and tolled - the deterioration of the secondary-road network is one of the most visible hallmarks of misgovernance in this country. It takes a special category of extraordinary neglect to have accomplished such advanced deterioration of the road network. Those things were superbly built in colonial times.

Abandoned roads

I recently crawled along what is left of a tertiary road, which once had an asphalt cover, now visible only in isolated patches. The base work of compact stone, however, remains firmly intact and is what makes the road usable at all today. I know roads which have been completely abandoned and are reverting to forest. Preventing this kind of thing was what the bauxite levy was supposed to be about - capital development against the day when this non-renewable resource would be done and gone.

The Public Accounts Committee of Parliament is a branch of the Jamaican Historical Society. They only review the past when nothing can be done to correct what has already happened. We want a different mechanism for making the Road Maintenance Fund accountable, from the word go, to us long-suffering and burdened taxpayers out of whom the money is being squeezed, on top of all the rest. On behalf of fellow citizens, I write to ask the ministers of works and finance to make the accounts and activities of the RMF public and transparent. The minister of finance has already given some commitments. He and the Government must be held to them.

Give us the opening balance and monthly [or quarterly] balance sheets. Tell us where the work is being done and is to be done. Tell us who has each contract from competitive tender, their qualifications for the work, and the budgets and timelines agreed. Leave the National Works Agency to manage and account for the fund.

Set and publicise a fair cap on the administrative cost of the RMF, leaving the bulk of the money to get actual road work done. Let independent financial and works audits be done with reports made public simultaneously with delivery to the Government, and not after being vetted and possibly gutted. Trust the people who elected you and give us good reasons to trust you.

Who on the Opposition backbench will adopt this agenda and run wid it? Which civic organisation?

Urban green spaces

From the roads, soon to be upgraded from our tax dollars serving us and with transparent accountability, we go to urban green spaces. Within just a couple of days I had the opportunity to see the Savannah in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, and to make another of many, many trips to Castleton Gardens here in Jamaica.

The Savannah is heavily used after work for exercise and for socialising. Groups meet there. The Savannah is a safe hub of urban social life. The area is well kept, except for the inexplicably derelict mansions across the road on one side. More broadly, Trinidad and Tobago has used its oil wealth for very visible infrastructural development, from the airport to pothole-free roadways, to the ultra-modern waterfront of the capital.

Kingston and most Jamaican urban centres have no 'Savannah'. We need savannahs and parks and maintained green space. I clipped and kept when it appeared in the print Gleaner on January 22, the article, "Columbia's urban stress busters a lesson for Ja." The story said, "Jamaica can take a leaf from Bogota's efforts to radically improve its provision of public spaces and revolutionise its transportation networks, as a strategy for dealing with the stresses of urban life."

The Colombian capital calculatedly undertook to improve its public-space infrastructure and transportation network over a mere three years, including in the poorest slum neighbourhoods. They are attributing a dramatic 50 per cent reduction in murders and a three-fold reduction in road fatalities to these measures.

"Studies have shown," the Gleaner story reported, "that where public spaces, such as parks, are provided for recreation, residents and citizens tend to be less aggressive and, therefore, less prone to violence."

So what are we waiting for? Kingston, one of the most violent cities on the planet, is blessed with plenty of open spaces which can be converted into recreational urban green spaces. There is an abundance of idle hands to make it happen. Jobs, jobs, and more jobs! Especially at the low end for the unskilled and unemployed.

Hope Gardens making a comeback

The little that is in and around the city has often been allowed to decline - like the roads across the country. Hope Gardens hit the dumps before now making something of a comeback. National Heroes Park, the once heavily used 'Race Course', is a shabby dust bowl. The waterfront is showing some improvement, but is perceived to be unsafe, especially after downtown closes, and that is early. It is encouraging to see some improvements at Castleton Gardens, with still too many marks of neglect, and at Hollywell, high in the mountains overlooking the city, which is absolutely one of my favourite places in the country. The lilly pond at Castleton has been cleaned and painted. Many of the trees have been nicely signed. A lot is there to be done to provide recreational green spaces right in the hearts of urban centres.

Martin Henry is a communications consultant who may be reached at medhen@gmail.com or columns@gleanerjm.com.