Crackdown on Ariapita Avenue coming

Mayor of Port-of-Spain Louis Lee Sing has pledged to crack down on unauthorised construction of business houses and noise abuse along Ariapita Avenue. He signalled his intentions at the Port-of-Spain Corporation’s monthly statutory meeting at City Hall, Knox Street, Port-of-Spain, yesterday. Lee Sing cited establishments, many of them in and around Ariapita Avenue, that violated city law by either building entire structures or making additions to existing ones without proper authorisation. The controversial mayor said the owners did not keep their customers in mind when planning their business places and warned that many with unauthorised additions were unsafe. “This is a warning to young people in particular, who frequent watering holes on Ariapita Avenue: many of the buildings you so desire to sit in and believe you are having the time of your life are not suited, nor were they constructed to house hundreds of bodies,” Lee Sing said.

 

The use of Ariapita Avenue for corporate advertising stunts will also be addressed as aggressively as possible, he said. Lee Sing said corporate bodies continue to use Ariapita Avenue for promotional activities, which usually include loud music trucks, although they have consistently been denied permits by the city corporation. Residents in the area are “terrorised” by the noise, he said.  The extra-duty allowances given to police officers who monitor these promotions are the main cause of the disregard of the city’s orders not to host these events, Lee Sing said. “They are getting involved in city business not because they want to, but because there are extra-duty allowances involved and therefore that is a priority over law and order,” he said. Lee Sing also announced that the city corporation had agreed hold talks with the Ministry of Tourism on plans to turn Ariapita Avenue into a tourist attraction.