Manning sets up rebuilding plan

An eight-member committee has also been set up to formulate proposals to temporarily house displaced vendors of the People’s Mall.

These iniatives come on the heels of the massive fire that destroyed several businesses in down town Port-of-Spain on Saturday. Two other ministers have been requested to meet with other established business owners affected by Saturday’s fire, to determine what assistance Government can give.

A statement from the Prime Minister’s Whitehall office yesterday detailing the PM’s initiative, said the committee was expected to hold its inaugural meeting yesterday evening.

Its members are Minister of Community Development, Culture and Gender Affairs Joan Yuille-Williams; Labour Minister Anthony Roberts; Local Government Minister Rennie Dumas; Minister in the Ministry of Finance Conrad Enill; Social Development Minister Mustapha Abdul-Hamid; Minister in the Office of the PM with responsibility for Social Delivery, Christine Kangaloo; Health Minister John Rahael and Port-of-Spain Mayor Murchison Brown.

The mandate of the committee is to "make interim physical arrangements to enable mall vendors to continue to ply their trade and to submit proposals for Cabinet consideration, designed to assist the vendors to firmly re-establish themselves in business."

Additionally, the statement said Enill and Trade and Industry Minister Ken Valley have been requested to meet other affected businesses to "determine what interventions, if any, are required by the Government to facilitate the early re-establishment of these business operations."

As announced by Manning on Saturday shortly after the fire, Udecott has been directed to construct a multi-storey building at the site of the burnt out mall. The new structure is to house shops on the lower floors for use by the vendors and the upper floors for a multi-storey car park. The statement said the new structure will facilitate the removal of parking on Frederick and Henry Streets.

Udecott has also been told to make public announcements of the plan and its projected milestones.