PM - Residents, find no common ground

The meetings took place with a team appointed by Prime Minister Patrick Manning which comprised chairman Herbert Atwell from the Office of the PM, a representative from the Urban Development Company of TT (Udecott), and two technical representatives from Genivar.

In a release the group said, “the Prime Minister’s team proposes to change the existing east/west orientation of the rugby field on the ground to north/south to allow the Prime Minister’s residence to absorb a substantial portion of the Grounds.” It said the President’s Grounds was the only flat piece of public ground in a densely populated, hilly area.

The community group said it was prepared to consider substantial shifting of the President’s Grounds’ boundaries if viable options were presented but it has insisted on maintenance of spaces for all traditional activities with no loss of green space and unrestricted access to the grounds. It has rejected moving facilities for existing activities to the Community Development compound.

The group said, “the negotiating team has no mandate from the community to entertain loss of public space — a proposal the wider community rejected at mass meetings, since the existing grounds can barely accommodate multiple simultaneous uses by different groups and teams.”

A resident told Newsday that a meeting will take place on Monday morning but a venue had not yet been decided.

She said a mass meeting of residents is scheduled at the Grounds on July 15 at 5 pm followed by a candlelight vigil around the Queen’s Park Savannah.

Discussions on the President’s Grounds resumed on May 31 after the residents wrote to Manning complaining about the lack of progress in talks with Udecott chairman, Calder Hart. The last meeting with Hart was on April 27.

Manning met with members of the St Ann’s/Cascade/Hololo resident’s committee on May 23 to discuss their concerns and a team was subsequently appointed to meet with them.