Opposition Leader Jamal Pringle is pushing back against claims circulating on social media that Old Road residents dug a trench across the roadway in protest this week, saying the excavation was carried out by APUA as part of a fibre-optic installation project.

Speaking on Observer AM , Pringle said APUA had contacted him about plans to land fibre at Morris Bay. He convened a town hall meeting with residents and later arranged a second meeting so APUA officials could address technical questions from the community.

According to Pringle, the trench seen in widely shared videos was part of that work.

“That was dug by APUA,” he said, adding that no resident had any role in creating the trench. He explained that after the destruction of his Morris Bay tent earlier that week, residents demanded that APUA temporarily cover the trench until the situation with the beach was resolved. He said APUA staff indicated they would send a backhoe to restore the road surface, but that residents later reported the trench had already been filled in by the following morning.

Pringle also dismissed the suggestion that Old Road was cut off from the rest of the island. He said vehicles were able to access the community via a diversion around the football field or by driving along the beach, and that at no point was travel in or out of Old Road impossible.

He said it was important to correct the record, noting that the spread of misinformation risked painting a false picture of community unrest. “It wasn’t done by the residents of the community,” Pringle said, calling the claims misleading and unhelpful.