Sascha Wil­son

Se­nior Re­porter

sascha.wil­son@guardian.co.tt

While po­lit­i­cal ten­sions con­tin­ue to play out be­tween the San Fer­nan­do East con­stituen­cy ex­ec­u­tive and MP Bri­an Man­ning, res­i­dents say their pri­ma­ry con­cern is not the in­fight­ing but the is­sues af­fect­ing their dai­ly lives.

The dis­pute be­came pub­lic af­ter Man­ning is­sued a state­ment ex­press­ing con­cern about how mat­ters he had raised on be­half of con­stituents, par­tic­u­lar­ly is­sues in­volv­ing con­stituen­cy chair­man Pa­tri­cia Alex­is, were be­ing han­dled with­in the par­ty.

The con­stituen­cy ex­ec­u­tive sub­se­quent­ly is­sued a state­ment sharply crit­i­cis­ing Man­ning, in­clud­ing his per­for­mance as the area’s par­lia­men­tary rep­re­sen­ta­tive.

How­ev­er, res­i­dents in­ter­viewed yes­ter­day in Pleas­antville, Ste Madeleine, Vista­bel­la and Mon Re­pos said their fo­cus re­mains on every­day prob­lems con­fronting their com­mu­ni­ties.

Sev­er­al res­i­dents crit­i­cised Man­ning’s rep­re­sen­ta­tion but de­clined to com­ment on the record. Oth­ers said while his per­for­mance could im­prove, they did not be­lieve he should step down and in­stead be giv­en an­oth­er chance.

For many, the con­cern was less about the po­lit­i­cal dis­agree­ment and more about whether long­stand­ing com­mu­ni­ty is­sues would fi­nal­ly be ad­dressed.

Res­i­dents said they would like to see their MP more of­ten and called for ac­tion on prob­lems such as over­grown bush­es, un­em­ploy­ment and de­te­ri­o­rat­ing roads. Some said they were more in­ter­est­ed in see­ing tan­gi­ble im­prove­ments in their com­mu­ni­ties than be­com­ing in­volved in the po­lit­i­cal dis­pute.

Roger Loo­bie, a res­i­dent of Co­coyea Vil­lage, said his main con­cern was the com­mu­ni­ty swim­ming pool, which has been out of ser­vice for years.

“The pool could do with a lit­tle fix­ing up be­cause, at the end of the day, stag­nant wa­ter breeds mos­qui­toes and it’s un­com­fort­able for peo­ple. A lot of youths need op­por­tu­ni­ties. The pool in that con­di­tion and that nice re­gion­al com­plex there, it’s not mak­ing any sense, and peo­ple are un­em­ployed,” Loo­bie said.

Point­ing to the over­grown bush­es around the foot­ball field, he said the fa­cil­i­ty could no longer host com­mu­ni­ty ac­tiv­i­ties. He added that the con­di­tion of the com­plex was lim­it­ing op­por­tu­ni­ties for young peo­ple in the area.

Loo­bie praised the work of coun­cil­lor Nigel Cout­ti­er but de­clined to com­ment on Man­ning’s per­for­mance, say­ing the last time he saw the MP in the com­mu­ni­ty was dur­ing the Gen­er­al Elec­tion cam­paign.

An­oth­er res­i­dent, An­der­son Ro­jas, of Ste Madeleine, said the state of the roads was his biggest con­cern.

“The roads are in a mess. The bad roads are dam­ag­ing ve­hi­cles, and that’s a cost com­ing di­rect­ly out of my pock­et. I need to see the roads re­paired,” Ro­jas said.

Asked about Man­ning’s rep­re­sen­ta­tion, he replied, “I re­al­ly can’t say be­cause I’m a busy man. I don’t re­al­ly see him. If I did, that would be nice. But maybe he’s do­ing his best.”

Pleas­antville res­i­dent Don­neal Daniel al­so point­ed to over­grown bush­es through­out the com­mu­ni­ty, which he at­trib­uted to the ab­sence of pro­grammes such as CEPEP and the Un­em­ploy­ment Re­lief Pro­gramme (URP).

“This is the nas­ti­est we have ever seen San Fer­nan­do,” Daniel lament­ed.

How­ev­er, he did not be­lieve Man­ning should be blamed for the sit­u­a­tion.

“It all comes down to the mon­ey. Every­where you go, peo­ple are cry­ing out.”

Daniel said he had lit­tle con­fi­dence that con­di­tions in the com­mu­ni­ty would im­prove any­time soon.

“It all comes down to fund­ing, you un­der­stand. Noth­ing can be done if there’s no mon­ey avail­able to do the work that needs to be done in the area.”