Fireworks sellers operate with impunity

What they left behind is such a good example of their disregard for the citizenry: their garbage is strewn across the lot (the old Bagshot site), with a heap of loose cardboard and trash discarded next to the recycling bins. Did the company responsible expect CaribGlass and Plastikeep to clear away their debris? Or perhaps SWMCOL workers? As usual, they only care about making money and then the rest of us have to “ketch”, right? This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to their disregard of the community. Their tent went up on December 11 on Saddle Road, and operated for weeks (from well before Christmas until midnight on Ole Year’s night). Every year, residents have to endure the round-theclock noise and light and disturbance of their diesel generators. Beyond commiserating with each other, we have made appeals to the owners of this fireworks business and its personnel.

They don’t care.

They claim they need it all for “security”. But it’s not residents’ fault that they insist on their unsecured “pop up shop” every year, is it? Why should we be made to suffer while they chase the almighty dollar in a tent we’re not even sure should pass muster for “securing” explosives? What’s worse is that these heartless mercenaries pump the area full of heavy duty fireworks, even though it is against the law to set them off in this and many of the areas where they set up shop. But they don’t care about the law, because their personnel set off fireworks right on the lot. Why, then, are they allowed to sell them in areas like these? Who are their customers not going to be but the same people driving into and out of this same area where it is illegal to use them? I had hoped that Philip Edward Alexander was right in claiming that his fireworks boycott was working.

But anyone living in the area, whether liming with family or tending to frightened dogs, knows that this year was as loud as or louder than ever. The Prime Minister and Minister of Information can call for the law to be enforced, but then what? There are not enough police to track down the perpetrators.

Even if they do, that nuisance fine is one that those in the “high class” areas, that are among the worst offenders, can easily pay.

To the authorities: must we all endure this fireworks scourge every Christmas, New Year’s, Carnival, Independence, Divali, and on and on? You must realise these businesses will continue to try to ingratiate themselves into every festive season and holiday until there is no peace left. If fireworks aren’t banned from residential areas, environmentally sensitive areas, and from close to hospitals, why aren’t they and all event organisers not mandated to use silent fireworks, to give the elderly, the sick, and the animals a little break? Or is it as everyone says, and that the authorities and even elected officials are being bought off by this fireworks mafia? Please, to all the powers that be, demonstrate that we are a society that values law, order, and care for our most vulnerable. Do not let these purveyors of short term thrills but long term misery back into our communities.

And make them clean up their own messes!

Faith L Maraval