Q. What is Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment?

Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment is the sys­tem for de­liv­er­ing com­mu­ni­ty in­fra­struc­ture and en­vi­ron­men­tal health ser­vices in Trinidad. Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment ser­vices are pro­vid­ed by City, Bor­ough and Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tions, which are al­so called Mu­nic­i­pal Cor­po­ra­tions.

Q. What ser­vices do these Mu­nic­i­pal Cor­po­ra­tions pro­vide?

Mu­nic­i­pal Cor­po­ra­tions are re­spon­si­ble for com­mu­ni­ty ser­vices such as:

Garbage col­lec­tion

Roads

Drains

Pub­lic Ceme­ter­ies and Cre­ma­tion fa­cil­i­ties

Recre­ation grounds, Pub­lic parks and squares

Ap­proval of Build­ing and Hous­ing Plans

In­spec­tion of build­ings and build­ing sites

Spray­ing against mos­qui­toes

Q. Who is in charge of the Mu­nic­i­pal Cor­po­ra­tions?

Mu­nic­i­pal Cor­po­ra­tions are gov­erned by Mu­nic­i­pal Coun­cils made up of the May­or/Chair­man, Al­der­men and Coun­cil­lors. Cit­i­zens vote in the Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Elec­tions to choose their Coun­cil­lors.

Q. Do cit­i­zens pay for Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment ser­vices?

Yes, but on­ly for a few ser­vices such as:

Clean­ing of cesspits and sep­tic tanks

The use of Cre­ma­tion and Bur­ial fa­cil­i­ties

Food badges

Q. Is Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment re­spon­si­ble for rur­al ar­eas on­ly?

No. Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment pro­vides ser­vices through­out Trinidad.

Q. Does the sys­tem of Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment ap­ply to To­ba­go?

The Mu­nic­i­pal Cor­po­ra­tions Act which gov­erns the Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment sys­tem in Trinidad does not ap­ply to To­ba­go. In­stead, To­ba­go is ad­min­is­tered by the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly (THA), which is a lo­cal self-gov­ern­ing body.

Q. How im­por­tant is it to have Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment rep­re­sen­ta­tion?

It is very im­por­tant to have prop­er Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment rep­re­sen­ta­tion to en­sure the de­liv­ery of qual­i­ty com­mu­ni­ty in­fra­struc­ture and en­vi­ron­men­tal health ser­vices. There­fore it is ad­vis­able to vote wise­ly for the Coun­cil­lor of your dis­trict.

Q. Who is an Al­der­man?

An Al­der­man is a per­son who is elect­ed by the Coun­cil­lors of a Cor­po­ra­tion to join the coun­cil. The Al­der­man must be a per­son who pos­sess­es demon­strat­ed knowl­edge, ex­per­tise or ex­pe­ri­ence in pro­fes­sion­al or vo­ca­tion­al oc­cu­pa­tions suit­able to the de­vel­op­ment fo­cus of the Mu­nic­i­pal­i­ty. Each Mu­nic­i­pal Coun­cil has two (2) Al­der­men with the ex­cep­tion of Port of Spain City Cor­po­ra­tion which has four (4) and San Fer­nan­do City Cor­po­ra­tion which has three (3).