FOUR-TIME Democratic Labour Party (DLP) candidate for Christ Church South, John Boyce, will support any cost overruns to ensure safe access for householders in Keizer Hill while construction work is taking place.

Boyce told a mass meeting Sunday night at Oistins to launch his candidacy he was appalled that in Keizer Hill, a Government could allow construction workers to carry out works around houses with the elderly especially, and leave them in such a state.

"You have a situation where persons trying to leave their homes have got two-foot drops onto this unprepared marl road," he said, "and the representative [Minister of Health Jerome Walcott] has not even graced the area with a visit.

"I am calling on the contractor to make sure that the first business [at the start of this work week] is to provide some kind of temporary steps for those houses which are being affected and are expected to be improved by the road. Provide temporary steps and handrails where necessary to allow the persons to exit and enter their homes safely."

Boyce noted it would be done for others, and it must therefore be placed on the expense account.

"I am willing to get the support of the DLP, even if it has to be an overrun," he added.

He pledged that the DLP would continue to work with both the young and elderly in the communities to shape a better life for the people.

"And we are not like the Barbados Labour Party at the 11th hour trying to bring all kinds of rushed programmes to the people of Barbados in a hope to excite them and to tempt them and to lure them into another mistake of voting for [Prime Minister] Owen Arthur and the Labour Party again," he said. "We have gone past that stage." (AB)