AG, THA to frame legislation for management of coastal areas

Attorney General Glenda Morean-Phillip will assist the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) in the formulation of “very stringent guidelines” to govern the management of Tobago’s coastal areas.

This, in fact, includes the possible enactment of legislation to that effect, according to THA Chief Secretary Orville London. He said it was all part of a move by the THA to prevent the recurrence in the island of any type of situation similar to that at Pigeon Point. London made the disclosures while fielding questions from the media at a briefing which followed his meeting with the AG in Scarborough on Friday. The meeting was held at London’s offices. London said there was consensus that “the THA has been placed in a situation where it is reacting; and one of the reasons why it is reacting is because no firm guidelines have ever been set, and no legal framework has ever been instituted to really govern the coastal management of Tobago, in fact of Trinidad and Tobago. “And what we have got is a commitment from the Attorney General that her department will assist us in framing the necessary guidelines,”  He said it was not certain whether this would be done mainly from a Tobago perspective or a Central Government perspective. “But what is very clear is that we the decision-makers have a responsibility to ensure that we set the guidelines, very stringent guidelines, to protect our heritage and the rights of the people; and that would be the platform from which we can base all our actions,” he emphasised. In this way, he said, the THA was not likely to be caught in this position again, “where we are actually reacting rather than people reacting to our situation.”