Newly-elected Tunapuna Piarco Regional Corporation councillor Joel Warrick came in for some heavy flak from Save Our Orange Grove Savannah Committee (SOGSC) member Vernon De Leon on Saturday, after Warrick said he supported the construction of a multi-sports complex in the Orange Grove Savannah, Tacarigua, based on majority support.
Warrick, councillor for Macoya/ Trincity, found himself in the firing line of a passionate De Leon during another community meeting on the planned development at the Eddie Hart Grounds, Tacarigua, on Saturday.Three other councillors were present–Aaron Thomas (Caura/Paradise/ Tacarigua), Esmond Forde (Auzonville/ Tunapuna) and Paul Leacock (Bon Air/Arouca/Cane Farm).Committee chairman Peter Burke and secretary/public relations officer Dr Carol James raised the residents' concerns to the councillors.
Warrick and Forde were the only people at the meeting who supported the project, which proposes to construction a multi-million-dollar sporting complex on the land which now houses the Eddie Hart grounds and old Moosai's cricket ground.The committee, however, is insisting that the development not be carried out, since they want to maintain the area as a "green space."One major area of concern was the lack of information on the project and in the cases of all the councillors, receipt of misinformation or no information at all.
Addressing Warrick during the meeting, De Leon said: "As the councillor for this area, if the SOGSC is wrong, you have a responsibility to inform yourself and that section of your community or burgesses who are wrong and not just blindly support the majority.
"We're not afraid to be told that we're wrong, but nobody has told us so, or brought forward cogent evidence and information to dispute anything that the committee has come up with in terms of the benefits of preserving our green spaces against the advantages of giving it up," he said."Until such time, reconsider that statement you made. If you're doing that, you're not a leader but a follower."
Warrick said his job was not necessarily to agree with everything, but to support and represent the majority even though it was not his personal position.He conceded, however, that if the majority of people said they didn't want the sports complex, then it shouldn't be built.Forde said what he was shown in the Sport Company of T&T's original designs for the $190 million project was a "totally different picture" from what was contained in the SOGSC flier on the matter.
Forde said there was provision for a 700-seater capacity stadium, not 900 capacity, all trees would remain in the savannah, there would be no high-rise structure, the Buggy Haynes cricket area would still be on the facility and there was no mention that people would have to pay to use the facility. The residents' sensitivity over the issue were raised once more on Friday when heavy equipment turned up and started clearing more of the land on which the development is to be built.
The committee subsequently sent a legal letter to the Sport Company on the matter, noting that Legal Affairs Minister Prakash Ramadhar had notified them that Cabinet had agreed that the project should not continue until all legal requirements had been fulfilled, including a certificate of environmental clearance from the Environmental Management Authority and there had been consultation.