No electricity at Charlotteville, Speyside recreation grounds

Minority member Farley Augustine on Tuesday raised concerns about a lack of amenities for sports and sports development in the electoral district he represents,

Parlatuvier, L’Anse Fourmi and Speyside.

Speaking at the Minority Council’s weekly media briefing at James Park in Scarborough, Augustine noted the lack of lighting at the Charlotteville recreation ground because of no electricity.

“In Charlotteville, the training field and the sporting facilities there have been without electricity for almost nine months. In fact, since before the start of the year, we made the complaint to the THA (Tobago House of Assembly) Division of Sport…The meter base had burnt out and for almost nine months, we are still here without electricity at this point in time. This means, the basketballers, they cannot train in the evening and it pains my heart to see them tagging me in videos of them training in the dark and shooting hoops in the dark, that is not fair to them,” he said.

Augustine also raised concerns about Speyside.

“At Speyside Grounds, T&TEC (Trinidad and Tobago Electricity Commission) cut the electricity because the bill was not paid. If you go to Speyside, there is a red tag, that is because the electricity was cut by T&TEC,” he said.

He said this was putting an added burden on the youths in area who can’t use the facilities to their advantage.

“Most of the young people usually utilise these grounds in the evening into the night because folks are working, folks are going to school, folks are doing other things during the day. We like in a tropical climate, the most comfortable time to engage in sporting activities and to exercise and so on will be in the evening time, and people cannot get that done.

“People don’t understand the role that sports plays in our economy, the role it plays in treating with the issue of crime and the role it plays in the development of our young people. We have so many talented athletes on the island in a variety of sporting disciplines, who still cannot find proper facilities to train in,” Augustine said.

Contacted for comment, Sports Secretary Jomo Pitt said he was unaware that electricity was cut at the Speyside recreation ground.

“Speyside is actually new information to us at the Division. With regards Charlotteville, we are aware that there are no lights at Charlotteville. Lights to sporting facilities are currently been rectified at this time. We are now approaching the end of phase one of the process, however Charlotteville is scheduled to be completed in the second phase of the project, which is expected to begin thereafter,” Pitt.