Petrol station opposite school, council’s fault

Others responsible include the chief executive officer, borough engineer and the building inspectors of the council.

According to the rules, the local government bodies are responsible for giving final permission to start construction and also to monitor construction. They are also responsible for the issuance of the completion certificate.

Within recent times, local government bodies have been hiding behind the fact that the Town and Country Planning Division gives initial approval, before other bodies consider the plans as presented.

In other words, if Town and Country does not give initial approval, it is back to the drawing board.

Hence, the Arima Borough Corporation is responsible for not stopping the construction of the gas station opposite the school. And the admittance that no plans were submitted to the corporation strengthens the non-performance of the corporation, which should have stopped construction via a “stop order.” The public, including those associated with the school, must also take blame for not bringing the unacceptable construction of the petrol station into the public domain.

This construction took years to complete and the groundwork would have taken more than a year. This should have been addressed and highlighted at the start of construction, on a daily basis.

The San Fernando City Corporation also should have stopped the excavation of the San Fernando Hill, gravel from which was dumped next to the Marabella Police Station. This corporation did not know of the construction site but used the excuse that approval was granted by a ministry.

The Penal-Debe Regional Corporation also refused to act when Town and Country stated that no approval was granted for construction at a site on the SS Erin Road, Phillipine, especially when the building is less than 25 feet from the boundary line adjacent to the roadway and the road reserve is included in the frontage.

In TT , officials deny any authority, hiding behind incompetence, corruption and virtual blindness for sundry reasons.

These matters require almost daily updates.

In a personal matter of 2008, despite almost daily visits and letters, a mayor’s response for his inactivity was that he was told by the San Fernando city engineer that the matter was settled.

The mayor had no response to the almost daily letters and visits to the corporation by myself. And the city engineer refused to sign the stop order for weeks.

The local government bodies must therefore exercise their authority to ensure that constructions are done in the right manner, especially with respect to setbacks.

The Arima mayor must now change her statement and accept full responsibility for the construction of the petrol station opposite the school, without the permission of the Arima Borough Corporation.

PHILIP AYOUNG-CHEE via email