Chin: JCC blocked theme park

BUSINESSMAN Derek Chin feels former Joint Consultative Council (JCC) president Afra Raymond may have had a hand in preventing development of his Streets of the World project. Chin said he put in his tenders and proposal for the project which would have been at Invaders’ Bay.

The Urban Development Corporation (Udecott) last week placed an advertisement for current tender requests for expressions of interest for development of lands at Invaders’ Bay, which Chin said came as a surprise to him.

“I was taken aback after having discussions with Mr (Noel) Garcia because he asked me if I was still interested about a month and a half ago and then I see this ad inviting people who may have an interest to tender. It was a kind of surprise and shock to me and Mr Joseph who is the other person to see that.

“My proposal was already approved and we went through the whole process and it was only a matter to get the land allocated so we could go ahead and do the job. We are having a chat with our legal representatives. The projects were all within the scope of what we wanted.

“I was going to do a fantastic job for Trinidad. They didn’t even call me or try to find out if I still have an interest. How could I want to tender again when my vision Streets of the World is in the public domain? What is to prevent another person coming in, putting it back in square one and giving everybody my plan and my vision? All they have to do is change the name and make a couple of modifications and you basically have stolen my idea,” Chin said.

He said $400 million was set aside for the project. “I don’t know if they have somebody to do this and use my exact plans already to tender. My drawings and my plans are already tendered, you can’t be more bold-faced than that. Mr Raymond came out years ago and threw a cloud over the project. I thought he had some kind of agenda, paid by somebody to block the way.”

In response Chin’s claims, Raymond said during his term as JCC president they were not working against any particular developer in that request for proposal situation at Invaders’ Bay under the PP government.

“Our efforts at that time were to seek for the large-scale development of our country to take place in accordance with proper procedure, hence our successful legal challenge against the then Minister of Planning & Sustainable Development.

“I resigned from JCC in November 2015 so I cannot say what is the position of that organisation, but I maintain that development in our country must take place in accordance with proper procedure. I will be able to say more once I have seen the Conceptual Development Plan mentioned in the UDECOTT advert,” he said.

He said the reported suggestions that he could somehow influence state property allocations were comical, but entirely untrue.

“My actual influence is very small, irrespective of which party is in power,” Raymond said. JCC president Dr James Armstrong said he did not think the JCC was trying to block anything.