Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has ex­pand­ed her Gov­ern­ment’s clam­p­down on noise pol­lu­tion, or­der­ing an im­me­di­ate halt to fetes at the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um and the Jean Pierre Com­plex ex­cept dur­ing the de­fined Car­ni­val win­dow.

In a post on her of­fi­cial so­cial me­dia ac­counts to­day, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said she in­struct­ed the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al and the Min­is­ter of Sport on Mon­day to im­pose the re­stric­tion, with ex­cep­tions on­ly from the Thurs­day be­fore Car­ni­val Mon­day and Tues­day un­til the Sat­ur­day af­ter. She said all fetes and par­ties at Min­istry of Sport fa­cil­i­ties must now be­gin no ear­li­er than 12 pm and end at 10 pm, and that the Na­tion­al Car­ni­val Com­mis­sion has been di­rect­ed to hire acoustic en­gi­neers to re­design sound sys­tems to min­imise noise and vi­bra­tions for near­by com­mu­ni­ties.

The an­nounce­ment fol­lows last week’s de­ci­sion to stop all fetes at the Bri­an Lara Crick­et Acad­e­my, a venue that has host­ed some of the coun­try’s largest Car­ni­val events. Per­sad-Bisses­sar said the BLCA ban was nec­es­sary be­cause the noise had be­come un­bear­able for res­i­dents and that noise pol­lu­tion and its im­pact on com­mu­ni­ties had been ig­nored for too long.

“I in­struct­ed that all fetes at the Bri­an Lara Crick­et Acad­e­my be stopped as the noise has be­come un­bear­able for res­i­dents. For far too long, the is­sue of noise pol­lu­tion and its neg­a­tive im­pact on com­mu­ni­ties has been ig­nored,” she said in a post last week. She de­scribed noise pol­lu­tion as a nui­sance and said the Gov­ern­ment will al­so pass fire­works leg­is­la­tion be­fore the end of the year, along­side en­hanced noise pol­lu­tion laws that will reg­u­late des­ig­nat­ed qui­et hours and in­tro­duce new re­stric­tions on fetes, mu­sic trucks, res­i­den­tial par­ties, and bars.

“As we move for­ward, my Gov­ern­ment re­mains com­mit­ted to bal­anc­ing cul­ture and com­mu­ni­ty well-be­ing, pro­tect­ing our tra­di­tions while safe­guard­ing the peace of our cit­i­zens,” she said to­day. “To­geth­er, we will build a more re­spect­ful, re­spon­si­ble, and har­mo­nious Trinidad and To­ba­go.”