SOS cry from Woodbrook, St Clair

However, since there seems to be a global increase in natural and man-invoked disasters, there might just be a positive response to my pleas and suggestions for improvement in the maintenance of Woodbrook and of King George V Park, around and in which many citizens — myself included — still have the privilege of walking and playing, even though it has become a bit of an eyesore.

The streets of Woodbrook and St Clair areas are swept everyday of the working week and the drains are occasionally cleaned out by the City Council workers.

As I and other citizens walk by the Oval and around the park, we see the mounds of wet dirt, leaves and refuse which the workers have neatly piled up alongside the canals, only to be sucked back into the drains once it rains again, or to be blown in all directions after the mercilessly hot sun has dried them out.

Today is the third day since some trees on the western end of the park were trimmed (thank God for small mercies, because for a very long time one has had to duck on walking past them on the pavement, ‘fuss’ they hanging down low!), and as has always been the case, those branches will stay right there, rot, and their dead leaves will accelerate the clogging of the drains and the subsequent flooding of the area.

The problem is compounded by the ever-increasing number of vagrants whose rags and cardboard bedding not only add to the refuse strewn about the park, but who systematically bring and sort bags of garbage from elsewhere (quite likely including the dumping ground in front of the St Mary’s grounds on the northern side), throwing out numerous plastic and paper wares which are swept up by the wind far and wide. They are patiently watched by twin stray dogs and their mother, waiting to delve into the mess, scavenging for leftover bones and scraps. This same scenario is replicated in the streets of Woodbrook by a particularly aggressive vagrant who, salvaging food from the garbage bags to be collected on the pavement, then viciously scatter the contents all along the front of homes.

In the face of the daily murder and mayhem in our beloved land, the concerns may sound trivial, but they are not because they are part and parcel of the degradation of the environment and the flooding which affect us all.

It seems such an obvious thing to simply have the refuse bagged immediately after the sweeping by the sweepers and the felled branched carted off as soon as possible on the same day. This follow-up cannot be a problem of lack of labour, because everyone can see the excessive number of City Council labourers doing little or nothing on the road repair sites or in the street-cleaning crews. We cannot sit back and let the whole of Woodbrook and St Clair be flooded at the slightest rains.

Moreover, since the issue of vagrancy seems to be beyond the capabilities of the Government, with regard to the park whose pristine beauty has been spoilt in great part by the vagrants, I wish to suggest that it simply is not enough for groups using the park to bag their garbage.

I do not know what fee is paid by them for the use of the park, but it should only be let to them on condition that they take away their garbage at the end of their event so that vagrants will not be encouraged to go there. The police, on their patrols, should not allow the vagrants to set up shop in the park and also keep an eye out for the police I have seen coming there in their cars and just dumping garbage on the northern side.

There are many Trinbagonians like myself who take a garbage bag along with them to the beach, for example, and who simply do not litter because that is how we were brought up.

We take our garbage back home with us. Some of the users of the park are not better than the vagrants, because they just throw their bottles, cups and food containers on the ground, violating this once beautiful public place.

Whilst on the subject of vagrancy, with the general increase in violence, I am disturbed at the rising aggressiveness amongst vagrants, especially the younger ones.

The other day, as I went to use an ATM on Independence Square about 6 am, amongst the droves of vagrants lying everywhere (I was there because I did not have the courage to step over one who slept in front of the door of my Woodbrook bank), I saw a number of them sleeping under the eaves at the front of the Customs building. As a man brought breakfast for them, one of them got up, urinated in the canal, then went back to sleep. Then another got up, turned around and proceeded to literally walk along the building spraying his waste in waist-high loops, with decisive concentration, all along the fa?ade. My friend shouted at him that he deserved to be locked up, to which he grinned triumphantly, proud of his filthy and malevolent behaviour.

No wonder Port-of-Spain is such a nasty city, with that acrid smell of human filth pervading the air! Mr Mayor, this problem of vagrancy in the city has to be dealt with urgently!

DIANNE NICHOLLS

Woodbrook