By RICARDO WELLS

Tribune Staff Reporter

rwells@tribunemedia.net

A SPOKESPERSON for the Justice for Marathon advocacy group said yesterday that she believes that the issues surrounding the 2012 Rubis gasoline leak are beyond politics for many of the area residents affected.

Latoya Hanna claimed that a solution will only come if people are willing to step beyond party lines, saying this is now a “national issue” that can only be dealt with from an “apolitical standpoint”.

“You always have your political views but the people, the people that bathed in the water, the mothers that were pregnant and had children with birth defects, it doesn’t matter to them whether it’s red, yellow or green,” she said.

“The reality is that we need help and the right kind of help. It can be achieved and it will be achieved. The persons who are directly impacted, we were all in one room on various political standpoints because you have persons who have died. You have eight deaths through one corner.”

The government has come under fire in the past month after reports surfaced that it suppressed a 2014 Black and Veatch International report on the Rubis underground gasoline leak.

That criticism prompted the government to reconsider its position on the matter and on Sunday, in a statement, it announced a list of actions to ensure the “care and safety of residents in the area, particularly the five households directly affected by the spill”.

However, on Monday evening, more than 200 people participated in a town meeting at Grace Community Church to address the exclusive concerns of residents in Regency Park, Highbury Park and Palmetto Village.

Area residents demanded that the government reconsider the number of households affected by the fuel spill.

Some residents took issue with a group of PLP supporters who ushered Marathon MP, Jerome Fitzgerald, into the building.

Sources insisted that the crowd consisted of a number of “high-ranking PLP generals” and people gathered by the party to support Mr Fitzgerald.

Ms Hanna said it did not stop anything. “There were some persons, based on what they were doing or saying, we could see that they had an ulterior motive.

“What that motive is and why it exists we have no idea and we are not deterred by it. The message still got across and it’s even more resounding now. It’s even louder.”

When contacted for comment PLP chairman Bradley Roberts said that due to him travelling at the time he was unaware of what had transpired. He said, however, that Mr Fitzgerald was a popular MP that had a lot of supporters behind him.

The Justice for Marathon group was established two weeks ago and has a membership of around 40 residents and business owners in the area, according to Ms Hanna.