By Hassan Osman Kargbo
For far too long Leicester Road community had been facing serious issue when it comes to roads and other facilities in the community. Leicester Road Community is located in the central part of Freetown in the outskirts of the city.
The community is trapped with the absence of a good road network and the problem of good roads and the issues of potholes is also a serious problem that needs to be addressed in the community and people are raising concerned.
Leicester Road is a community that is populated and authorities concerned need to do more to improve the deplorable road network. Whiles Sierra Leone Roads Authority (SLRA) through the government had put efforts to settle the roads and potholes crisis within the city, the people of Leicester Road are faced with series of potholes and bad roads network.
Mohamed Kamara, a commercial motorbike rider along the Model Secondary School axis noted that for the past years the Leicester Road Community has been in a deplorable condition and the authority concerns had been given the road blind eyes. He said the poor road network has been destroying their commercial motorbikes. “This road has been destroying our bikes. Whenever I used the Leicester Road I feel irritated because of the condition of the road grid. Most times I rejected passengers that are coming along this route, but I sometimes come here because the Leicester Road Community is a big community that a lot of passengers are coming from there,” he stated.
Kamara admitted that they normally spent a hug sum of money to repair their motorbikes. That’s why he don’t love to use the Leicester Road because of the condition of the road is not encourage especially in the raining seasons.
Abu Fatoma, a resident of Leicester Road said that, they finding it difficult to get bikes to transport them to town because of the condition of the road. He continued that the potholes had been at Leicester Road since when he was a boy and up till now they’re still visible in their community.
He noted that the government should focus try to construct if not to rehabilitation the road. He said if it happens it will reduce the rate of accidents, as so many people have sustained injuries due to that road the bad road in Leicester road community.
He added that the community has been affected by the increasing prices of transportation because of the bad roads especially in the morning and evening hours. He said sometimes they worked to town in the morning because of the tension.
Residents are calling on the government to fulfil their long-standing promises and bring the much-needed development to their doorstep.
As the community awaits action from the government, the residents remain hopeful that their cries for help will be heard as Soon as possible.
