S ometimes all it takes to solve a problem is a bit of cooperation from all sides, as The Royal Gazette discovered when Tim Smith visited Southampton East Central for this week's Up Your Street.

It's been a source of frustration for motorists and safety concern for pedestrians for years, but life at Waterlot Hill is finally set to change for the better thanks to a generous donation from a landowner.

The stretch of road off Riviera Road, Southampton, is so narrow it's a nervous walk for any walker needing to get from one side to the other as large vehicles boom by.

Meanwhile drivers are forced to wait at the bottleneck while traffic squeezes through the other way, making the rush-hour journey that bit more annoying for everyone.

Now, to the relief of locals and road-users alike, a homeowner living next to the road has agreed to give Government a chunk of her property — allowing the road to be widened and a sidewalk installed.

"This road is dangerous. Every day you see people walking along it and wonder what will happen if a car comes through too fast," said one resident when Up Your Street visited Southampton East Central.

No sooner had area MP Zane DeSilva taken The Royal Gazette to the offending location than we saw for ourselves exactly what people were complaining about, as a bus screeched to a halt while cars came through in the opposite direction.

"This is exactly why this needs to be safer," said the Minister without Portfolio.

"Hopefully we can put a sidewalk in now, which will also create a much easier access, in and out."

Not too far around the corner from the bottleneck, lurks another local concern, although from the evidence on our visit something already seems to have been done to alleviate it.

The Railway Trail, between Riviera Road and Scenic Heights Pass, has long been cursed with fly-tipping, with household items like washers and dryers routinely dumped for years.

But when Up Your Street arrived, instead of being confronted with unwanted TVs, fridges and old wardrobes, all we saw was a sign warning people the gates to the Railway Trail will be shut if they don't stop fly-tipping.

It appeared to have done the trick, with residents perhaps keen not to bring about the closure of a key thoroughfare near their homes.

Fly-tipping, however, remains a pest across the Island, and Mr. DeSilva said: "How would you like somebody to dump in your yard? These people should take their trash to the dump like everyone else.

"Maybe they just don't want to lug it all the way to the airport. I have no problems calling these people lazy."

Lazy is one thing Mr. DeSilva probably isn't, with the nickname given to him by his constituents — the Energiser Bunny — now catching on with political colleagues including Premier Ewart Brown.

One resident of Shawn Acres Road praised the Minister for putting up lights following a spate of break-ins, while another pointed to recently asphalted road surfaces in the Scenic Heights area.

l Next week, Up Your Street visits Sandys North Central. Residents of that constituency who want to raise local issues should e-mail news@royalgazette.bm.