Port-of-Spain North/St Ann’s East MP Stu­art Young has ex­pressed con­cern over Her­itage Pe­tro­le­um Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed’s de­ci­sion to end spon­sor­ship of Skif­fle Bunch Steel Or­ches­tra and Siparia Del­tones Steel Or­ches­tra, de­scrib­ing it as part of an on­go­ing pat­tern of re­duced sup­port for steel­bands.

Her­itage, in a let­ter to Skif­fle Bunch yes­ter­day, stat­ed that its spon­sor­ship would end on De­cem­ber 27. The com­pa­ny ac­knowl­edged the suc­cess­ful part­ner­ship and the work of the band but not­ed that the de­ci­sion fol­lowed an in­ter­nal re­view. Her­itage al­so re­quest­ed that its name and lo­go no longer be used by the band.

Young said this move fol­lows ear­li­er de­ci­sions by the Na­tion­al Gas Com­pa­ny to end as­sis­tance to three oth­er steel­bands. He warned that such ac­tions im­pact not on­ly the na­tion­al in­stru­ment but the wider pan move­ment. The MP called on the au­thor­i­ties to pro­vide clar­i­ty on the ra­tio­nale be­hind these de­ci­sions, sug­gest­ing that they raise ques­tions about the ap­proach of the cur­rent gov­ern­ment.

“Steel­bands have long main­tained strong com­mu­ni­ty links and have played an im­por­tant role in na­tion­al events,” Young said. “The end­ing of spon­sor­ship agree­ments af­fects the bands them­selves and the pro­grammes they sup­port. This is­sue re­quires pub­lic at­ten­tion, and there should be a re­view of state en­ter­prise sup­port for cul­tur­al groups.”

Skif­fle Bunch con­firmed that it has re­ceived Her­itage’s no­tice and will meet to dis­cuss the next steps. Siparia Del­tones is al­so ex­pect­ed to ad­dress the sit­u­a­tion. Both bands have a long­stand­ing his­to­ry of in­volve­ment in na­tion­al com­pe­ti­tions and com­mu­ni­ty ini­tia­tives.

Young said he will con­tin­ue to raise the mat­ter in Par­lia­ment and will seek up­dates from the com­pa­nies in­volved.