Deputy mayor of the Port-of-Spain City Corporation Keron Valentine says the city corporation has no problem with the telecommunications giant Digicel.He said so in response to Port-of-Spain mayor Louis Lee Sing's statement that he was "horrified" by Digicel two billboards at Memorial Park, Port-of-Spain which showed giant images of soca artistes Kees Dieffenthaller and Ravi "Ravi B" Bissambhar among others.
Lee Sing's comments were reported in the Sunday Guardian of February 3.But in a telephone interview yesterday, Valentine said Digicel sought and received all the necessary permission required to put up the billboards in the park but the corporation later took a strategic decision to relocate them to the Queen's Park Savannah.
The decision came, he said, after war veterans wrote to the corporation complaining of a television advertisement by bmobile which showed Olympic athletes in scanty Carnival costumes in front of the cenotaph.
Valentine said to avoid any further issue or concern, the corporation decided to move the billboards. Asked if Lee Sing was upset by the billboards, Valentine said the mayor did not indicate anything like that to him and assured if the mayor was upset he would have said as much.
In a statement sent to the T&T Guardian, Digicel said: "Digicel would like to assure the public that all permissions were sought from the relevant authorities, and guidelines complied with, before we erected the two Carnival promotional billboards.Any concerns raised about the location came after we met all stipulations as set out by the Port-of-Spain Corporation.
"It is Digicel's policy to operate with the utmost respect for the citizens of T&T."Lee Sing could not be reached for comment up to late yesterday.