Councillors slam city engineers

ALL is not well between councillors of  the Port-of-Spain Corporation and certain senior personnel in the administrative staff. This fact came to light at Thursday’s statutory meeting of the Corporation. During the presentation of the report of the Physical Infrastructure and General Purposes Committee, several accusations were made. Committee chairman, Councillor Peter John was loud in his criticism of certain supervisors in the Engineer’s Depart-ment. He said those officers were not performing in the best interest of the Corporation, which for all practical purposes had become the “whipping boy by angry members of the public.”

John singled out some areas where work had been authorised to be done, but had been neglected. He told the meeting, “My committee had requested (from) the City Engineer to carry out road repairs in a number of streets in the city; repair sidewalks or pavements; repair drains and canals in a number of streets; replace street signs; clean drains in a number of key areas; cut overgrown shrubs on vacant lots, but we are being embarrassed by (the) lack of performance.” He explained, “We are not getting justice and the burgesses are getting fed up.”

“As Council members, it is our responsibility to see that work is done,” added John. He hoped that there would be some improvement, “not for myself, but for the benefit of the burgesses of the city of Port-of-Spain.” The Public Health Committee of the Council expressed their concerns about the recent flooding in the city resulting from heavy rainfalls and high tides. The meeting heard that Port-of-Spain is under sea level and this fact, coupled with flooding, would always be a problem in the city, especially when the tide is high.