Cricket fans will face parking challenges tomorrow, Monday and Wednesday since the Port-of-Spain City Corporation has restricted parking at King George V Park, St Clair. Port-of-Spain mayor Louis Lee Sing made the announcement on Wednesday night as he welcomed participants to day one of the Sustainable Development of Coastal Communities: Challenges and Solutions Conference at the Hyatt Regency, Wrightson Road, Port-of-Spain. Lee Sing said: "Those of you who go to cricket at the Queen's Park Oval, no doubt will have a challenge with your parking this cricket season because the city, ten months ago took a decision that we could no longer encourage people to use the King George V Park which is one of the few green spaces in the city of Port-of-Spain–as a parking lot."
India vs West Indies Digicel Twenty/20 and two ODIs take place at the Oval tomorrow, Monday and Wednesday respectively. Lee Sing said the park had become so hard that when users fell on the grass, it was like falling on concrete. He said this was as a result of people being allowed to park there for decades. He said the corporation had the task of completely ploughing the park and doing all that was necessary to restore it so that water could permeate the soil.
"When water hits the park by way of rain now, it then bounces off and causes flooding all the way through St Clair and Woodbrook," Lee Sing said. The mayor said ploughing the park was one of the many projects awaiting approval by the Ministry of Local Government. He said more care must be taken and given to the environment. "Issues of the environment are urgent, critical and require everyone's attention," Lee Sing said. He said many "small but decisive decisions" were taken by the corporation-decisions which upset many people who used the city.
"But we will continue and press on nonetheless," Lee Sing said. The conference which ends today was hosted by the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute for Social and Economic Studies, The University of the West Indies, St Augustine campus. Contacted yesterday, Lee Sing said there were a few delinquent people who breached the parking restrictions at the park. He said promoters of events needed to ensure that their patrons were allowed proper parking facilities without breaching the city's restrictions.