Dear Editor,
Kindly allow me some space in your newspaper for this letter. Yesterday, Tuesday 18-05-2021, I had cause to go to the Hampshire Cemetery to attend the funeral of a close relative and Editor it was a nightmare to get to the burial site, because of the horrible state of the access road that leads to the cemetery. Editor, this cemetery falls within the Hampshire/Kilcoy NDC and over the years residents have made numerous reports to the authorities with regards to the state of this road and sad to say their pleas have fallen on deaf ears. And do you know what the most hurtful part is? In front of the cemetery is the Belvedere Industrial Site and the powers that be ensured that this same road up to the Industrial site is a beautiful asphalted one and the rest of the road up to the cemetery remains a mud dam and in a miserable state when it rains. Well, I guess the industrial site is more important than our loved ones who has to be buried at the Hampshire Cemetery. And by the way, the government got the name totally wrong, the industrial site is in Hampshire and not Belvedere and so they should change the name to Hampshire Industrial Site. Anyway, after spending hundreds of millions of dollars over a period of three administrations and fifteen years and counting, this industrial site is a white elephant with only one building there to date. I diverted slightly, but coming back to the cemetery road, since the government started infrastructure work at the Hampshire/ Williamsburg new housing scheme which is just in front of the cemetery, the contractor has taken over the road and stockpile red sand and other materials including his machinery with no regard for residents who have to bury their loved ones at the cemetery. As I said earlier, access to the cemetery is a nightmare. I am therefore calling on the Minister of Public Infrastructure Juan Edgill or Minister of Housing and Water Collin Croal to come and see what is going on so as to alleviate the suffering of the people and give us a concrete asphalted road up to the Hampshire Cemetery. We deserve better.
Sincerely,
Imtiaz Baccus