Tacarigua residents and members of The Save Our Green Space Committee staged a placard demonstration along the Priority Bus Route, by the Eddie Hart Grounds, yesterday. They were protesting the Sports Company of T&T (Sportt) continued disregard for a stop order to cease work until it secured a Certificate of Environmental Clearance (CEC) approval on the controversial sporting complex at the Orange Grove Savannah.
The committee’s acting secretary Vernon De Leon led the 125 plus residents, including seniors, teenagers and children in the morning protest. This followed the residents and SOGSC’s placard protest outside the Sports Company headquarters, on Henry Street, Port-of-Spain, on Friday.
De Leon said: “This is an overflow of the indignation of the community that a stop order was issued by the Tunapuna/Piarco Regional Corporation last Saturday and we saw a resumption of activities by the contractors nevertheless, in the presence of EMA (Environmental Management Authority) officials and protected by the police. “They never actually stopped working on their site office, and they resumed the fencing of the perimeter of the eastern ground on Thursday.
“The community is particularly incensed about this development that the residents have been forcibly evicted and fenced out from using that part of the savannah which they use as a thoroughfare that also joins the community.” De Leon said school children’s activities, cricketers’ practice and commuters going to work were also disrupted by the fencing of the savannah.
He said the group delivered a letter to acting Commissioner of Police Stephen Williams on Friday, drawing to his attention that his officers on the ground were saying that they were unaware of the stop order. De Leon said the body asked Williams to ensure the implementation of the stop order and to alert his officers to what was taking place in the field. He said the perception was that the police appeared to be protecting the continued illegal activity by the Sport company and its contractors, Synthesis Group Ltd.