Lange Park promised ground for cricket and football only

Residents living in the upscale community of Lange Park in Chaguanas and environs are to get a new ten-acre playing field for cricket and football. This pledge comes from Chaguanas mayor Orlando Nagessar who said he met with angry Lange Park residents on Tuesday who complained bitterly that “outsiders” were  using the recreation ground in the community and not giving residents of the area a chance, especially on evenings, to exercise along the jogging track. 

Nagessar said one resident complained that an elderly woman was exercising and was hit on the head by a hard cricket cork ball and had to be hospitalised. He said the ground was a public playing field and everyone was entitled to use it since taxpayers’ dollars were being used to maintain it. 

Nagessar said the meeting  included representatives of the cricket club, who were asked to desist from playing hardball cricket in the playfield from 6 pm to 10 pm between Monday and Friday. He said if the cricket club breaches the order they would be ejected from the facility. However he said cricketers could use the nets at the facility and would be free to practise on weekends.

He said it was important that people got exercise regularly to stem the tide of lifestyle diseases linked with cardiac problems and diabetes. Nagessar said the borough was given permission to develop a ten-acre site next to the present ground that would be dedicated to cricket and football. 

Nagessar said this new facility should be ready in six months’ time once a cost factor is worked out, and when the new ground comes on stream only windball cricket would be allowed on the present ground.