Frustrated St. George's residents might soon see the completion of a re-paving project in the Old Town initially expected to be finished at the beginning of the year.

Mayor Mariea Caisey admitted that despite the good intentions of the Corporation of St. George's and the St. George's Foundation, a series of problems had stalled work for several months. However, she expressed confidence that work would resume "as soon as" workmen could get back on the job.

Area residents this week expressed disappointment in the delay, insisting no reason had been given for it despite the many inconveniences caused to locals and tourists.

Explained one: "What this means is that parking spaces on Broad Alley (rare as hen's teeth in this town) have been unavailable for a year, tourists are discouraged from visiting the Old Rectory and vehicular traffic coming down Printer's Alley is restricted to only those vehicles that can make the turn onto Queen Street."

The start of the project dates back to the mid-1990s, part of a plan to give more of an old world feel, to the World Heritage site. The more recent work began in September 2006, when it was announced cobbles would be put down on Church Lane, Broad Alley and part of Printer's Alley.

Said another resident: "She said it would all be finished by Christmas (of 2006) but it's still not finished and I doubt it will be finished by this Christmas. Scuttlebutt around here is that there were two delays, the first because the Corporation had forgotten to ask the firm that lays these things if they were ready to start work ¿ that took a month or so.

"The second was caused because they miscalculated on the number of cobbles to order, and only had enough to do Church Lane and half of Broad Alley. On the rest of it, tall weeds grow in the rubble."

Mrs. Caisey conceded the project had been plagued with several problems but denied the Corporation had miscalculated the number of bricks needed for its completion.

"There have been several hold ups," she admitted.

"The first was that we had to order more bricks and our supplier was from England, so it took some time. And then the supplier sold the business to someone who wasn't familiar with sending bricks abroad, which took more time. And then there was a problem with the pallets the bricks were stored in. They had to be fumigated ¿ another hold-up. So there's been one problem after another.

"There was no miscalculation. The block that the Bank of Buttefield sits on got bricked and those were initially meant (for elsewhere). But the bricks are now here. Right now we have three out sick and unfortunately residents are being inconvenienced. As soon as the men can, they will get to it."