Shal­iza Has­sanali

The St James Po­lice were yes­ter­day called out fol­low­ing a fiery protest by res­i­dents of George Cabral Cir­cu­lar Road over a closed mul­ti-mil­lion cen­tre in the com­mu­ni­ty. The res­i­dents, flanked by Port-of-Spain South MP Mar­lene Mc Don­ald, called on Sports Min­is­ter Anil Roberts to open the new three storey St James Youth Cen­tre for the young­sters in the area. The clo­sure of the cen­tre, res­i­dent Daniel Salde­nah said, was con­tribut­ing to crime, since the youth could not take part in pro­grammes, cours­es and sport­ing ac­tiv­i­ties which the old cen­tre once of­fered.

In­sist­ing that the com­mu­ni­ty was be­ing ne­glect­ed since roads need­ed to be paved, jobs of­fered and drains built, Salde­nah vowed to step up protest ac­tion if their con­di­tions are not met. Since the Peo­ple' Part­ner­ship came in­to Gov­ern­ment, Salde­nah said crime has in­creased. "They come around with their sto­ries to get our votes and now we are be­ing ne­glect­ed." Salde­nah said they will not be in­tim­i­dat­ed by the pres­ence of the po­lice and felt safe with their vis­i­bil­i­ty. Chant­i­ng "We want we cen­tre" and beat­ing drums, the res­i­dents blocked the road with a pile of burn­ing de­bris, but the po­lice re­spond­ed with­in min­utes to re­store law and or­der.

They left short­ly af­ter. Mc Don­ald said the cen­tre had been com­plet­ed some time ago and was opened be­fore the Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment ex­it­ed of­fice in May 2010. "One ex­pect­ed it to be up and run­ning by now." She feels Roberts was sidelin­ing the res­i­dents. Hav­ing walked the com­mu­ni­ty for sev­er­al weeks, Mc Don­ald said the com­mon con­cern of the res­i­dents was the open­ing of the cen­tre.