Tacarigua residents and the Members of the Save Our Green Space Committee have placed little faith in the effectiveness of St Augustine MP Prakash Ramadhar taking their petition to Cabinet in a bid to stop the construction of a multi-sport facility at the Orange Grove Savannah by The Sports Company of T&T (Sportt).
Secretary/PRO of the Committee Carol James said the residents were not comforted by the temporary halt in the preliminary excavation works with the removal of the earth moving equipment from the savannah on Thursday. James said the removal of the heavy equipment didn't mean a cessation in activity, the contractor continued surveying the eastern grounds, placing markers in the soil.Sport Minister Anil Roberts announced on Friday that construction on the sporting centre was moving full steam ahead.
The three party representatives seeking the votes of the residents in the local government elections tomorrow–Congress of the People's Ria Boodoo, the Movement for Social Justice's Peter Burke and the Independent Liberal Party's Aneela Choon all pledged their support to the residents to stop the project.Their commitment was made during a public forum, hosted by the Lloyd Best Institute of the West Indies on Wednesday night at the Charis World Christian Academy, located opposite the savannah.
Representing the views of the People's National Movement was Opposition MP Colm Imbert, who also advocated for more consultation before construction commenced in earnest.
Imbert gave the residents a ray of hope when he advised them to demand an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for the project, as a Certificate of Environmental Clearance had already been done. He said the application was not properly sent to the Town & Country Planning Division for onward transmission to The Environmental Management Authority (EMA). Imbert said this meant the process had not begun and it placed the residents in a very fortunate position.
Imbert said the residents had some time and they needed to use the law and procedures. He suggested that all the interest groups immediately communicate with the EMA and demand an EIA.He explained when a CEC was granted, an EIA was optional, with a series of criteria applied to the project in terms of impact, such as socio-human, environmental, infrastructure and population impact.
Imbert said the EMA then made a decision as to whether the project would require a full impact assessment which would entail all of the usual public consultations, meetings with the public, open forums, full feedback and discussions and the residents caught it at the right time.He said all that was contained in the PNM's manifesto was upgrading of the regional grounds including the Eddie Hart Grounds.
Imbert urged the residents to exercise their lawful right and insist that the EMA initiate an EIA for the project and not a blade of grass be removed from the savannah before the wishes of the people were understood and complied with.He said consultants had obviously been hired by the Sports Company, since there was an application for a CEC floating around somewhere, and he told the residents to also consider filing judicial review as well.A letter was sent to the EMA requesting an EIA for the project by the Committee on Friday.