No love for One Love fete

THE ON-AGAIN, off-again affair involving the Karukera One Love fete at Maracas Bay throws into sharp relief deficiencies in the State’s events approval process, raising questions over whether it amounts to true oversight or simply a rubber-stamping procedure. Whatever happens on Friday, there are lessons to be learned.

This matter shows the problem of organisational silos, in which various departments do not communicate effectively with one another, is a very real issue for state agencies. The Commissioner of State Lands took one position, Udecott, Chief Fire Officer Marlon Smith and the minister in charge took another and, by fiat, reversed it.

One hand did not know what the other was doing (understandable, perhaps, given the bureaucracy of the public service) but more crucially there is no sense of a clear, coherent policy book from which all actors are reading. This problem can have serious consequences. The health and safety of patrons, not to mention the impact on the environment, are all at stake.

At the same time, there is, at minimum, a clear template for how events are approved in this country. This involves liaising with agencies such as fire and police as well as environmental watchdogs. And it involves a public hearing: going to court and ensuring there are no objections from stakeholders, including residents who might be potentially affected.

The question to be asked now, however, is: how effective is the process? The TT Promoters Association thinks the system is untenable.

Does the One Love experience not show that the approvals process is a somewhat shallow one? One gets the sense that the process amounts to an echo chamber in which conditional approval is granted by one agency, then used as a basis to approach another agency which then grants its own conditional approval.

Did all the parties realise a defining feature of Karukera events is a stage in the sea (a matter which might have been overlooked since plans may have been submitted for approvals to diffuse agencies, though ascertainable by a quick internet search)?

None of this, of course, addresses the substantive matter of whether a fete should take place on a beach, with or without a stage on the water. Such fetes are not unprecedented in this country, though the assessment of the specific situation at Maracas is one that falls to a court or judicial licensing committee with the power to weigh the views of stakeholders.

Finally, the timing of this saga speaks volumes. According to reports, this event has been months in the making and these matters (including the minister’s rescinding of a letter of non-objection) have occurred at the very last minute. That alone raises a hornet’s nest of legal issues that could well prompt an expensive, unlovely sequel in court.