Mr Ed­ward "Ed­die" Tay­lor was the May­or of Port-of-Spain from 1960 to 1968, 50 years ago, and dur­ing his term in of­fice the prob­lem of park­ing on the streets of Port-of-Spain was dis­cussed and sug­ges­tions made to the cen­tral gov­ern­ment for solv­ing the prob­lem.Since that time, suc­ces­sive may­ors have had to con­front the prob­lem of park­ing and now 50 years lat­er, it is the turn of the in­cum­bent, May­or, Mr Louis Lee Sing. The ques­tion may be asked: Will a so­lu­tion for this prob­lem ever be im­ple­ment­ed?

Every year there is an in­crease in the num­ber of ve­hi­cles on the roads; every year there is con­struc­tion of ad­di­tion­al mul­ti-sto­ried of­fice build­ings in Port-of-Spain, ap­par­ent­ly with in­ad­e­quate park­ing be­ing pro­vid­ed for staff and vis­i­tors. In grant­i­ng per­mis­sion for the con­struc­tion of these large build­ings, does the Town and Coun­try Plan­ning Di­vi­sion stip­u­late that ad­e­quate park­ing be pro­vid­ed for staff and vis­i­tors?

About 35 years ago, the late Mr Ronald Williams, an en­gi­neer, not Mr Ronald Williams the politi­cian, had sug­gest­ed that the area of sea, south of the light­house on Low­er Broad­way, be re­claimed and be used as a car park.

To­day I will re­peat that sug­ges­tion. This re­claimed land will not on­ly pro­vide the space for a large car park but will al­so pro­vide ad­di­tion­al space for the use of ves­sels en­gaged in the up-the-is­lands trade, fa­cil­i­tate the widen­ing of the Beetham High­way in that area, and im­por­tant­ly, pro­vide in­creased space for the stor­ing of con­tain­ers for To­ba­go. This would bring some re­lief to dri­vers who are frus­trat­ed by the present con­ges­tion and in­con­ve­nience when load­ing or off-load­ing their ve­hi­cles on the To­ba­go fer­ries.

What do you say? Such a project will cost a con­sid­er­able amount of mon­ey. I agree, but we must have long-term plan­ning and cor­rect­ly de­ter­mine our pri­or­i­ties. This, in my opin­ion, is a pri­or­i­ty. The Gov­ern­ment has al­ready con­struct­ed sev­er­al mul­ti-sto­ried build­ings in low­er Port-of-Spain, many of which re­main un­oc­cu­pied while the Gov­ern­ment is spend­ing vast sums of mon­ey for the rental of of­fice space. How fun­ny!

Mean­while, suc­ces­sive may­ors over the many years con­tin­ue to seek a so­lu­tion for the park­ing prob­lem while the bank ac­counts of the wreck­er op­er­a­tors grow dai­ly.

Ian Lam­bie

To­ba­go