Repair work on QRC soon

Rawle Mitchell, head of the historical restoration unit in the Ministry of Works and Infrastructure, says repairs to Queen’s Royal College are coming soon. He was responding to a statement made by the school’s principal Lennard Hinkson last Wednesday that QRC was falling apart. QRC was built in 1904 and is one of the historic Magnificent Seven buildings around the Queen’s Park Savannah. A restoration project was completed at QRC in 2010. 

On Wednesday, Hinkson told an inter-ministerial group touring the Magnificent Seven buildings his many calls and letters to the Ministry of Works and Infrastructure went without response. When the T&T Guardian contacted Mitchell he said he had received Hinkson’s letters but noted the ministry had to address the matter carefully. 

Mitchell said the ministry was speaking with the design consultant and contractor on the project about rectifying the problems. He said he would have to look through documents to name the exact problems the school was facing. The T&T Guardian was reliably informed the main building of QRC had issues of water damage and pigeon infestation. 

Mitchell said the maintenance of the school was up to the Ministry of Education while defects in the building were the contractor’s responsibility. However, the Ministry of Education’s media relations co-ordinator Yolanda Morales Carvalho said all projects related to QRC’s main building were the responsibility of the Ministry of Works and Infrastructure. 

Mitchell said because QRC was more than 100 years old, it would require high maintenance, and that some of the problems were because the building was a school, where lots of activities took place. He could not say how soon the consulting stage would be finished and when the contractor would actually start to address issues at QRC. 

President of Citizens for Conservation Rudylynn Roberts, a conservation architect, said QRC obviously required more careful maintenance than other schools because of its historical value. She added that the Magnificent Seven were not only significant to T&T but the entire Caribbean, and whether the buildings were privately or publicly owned, Government should have systems in place to ensure maintenance.