De Nobriga does post-campaign cleanup in Diego Central

Once MP-elect for Diego Martin Central Symon de Nobriga had responded on Tuesday to messages from friends and relatives congratulating him on his win, one of his first activities was to remove his campaign posters from the area.

"We went out to scrape off the posters we had up. It was an important thing for me to do."

Complaints about unsightly election debris are common, but cleaning it up is not. Perhaps it's a sign that de Nobriga will be an MP with a difference.

Having served as chairman of the DMRC since December 2019, he said he felt his role as a local government official helped him earn the trust and support of constituents.

But he also admitted, "I know that there is a learning curve. I know that we are going to have to hit the ground running."

Referring to his Diego Martin "neighbours" the Prime Minister and Colm Imbert, who retained their seats, de Nobriga said he was guided by their experience and felt comfortable in learning from their leadership.

"At least for me, being in Diego Martin Central, I am flanked by Diego Martin North/ East and Diego Martin West, so we on the PNM side have the benefit of two MPs who have over 30 years of service in the area and we look forward to their guidance."

On his goals for the constituency, de Nobriga spoke of programmes to develop skills among youths and infrastructural development.

"There will be a focus on harnessing and facilitating that creativity that I have seen at the local-government level in our constituencies so it will be about finding and enacting programmes to generate the productive efforts of our youth in business, the creative arts, agriculture – especially urban farming.

"I am also not going to downplay the need for infrastructure. That is a focus we are going to have, particularly when it comes to water delivery. I think we have issues in Diego Martin Central, especially when it comes to hillside restoration to slow the flow of water down to our minor and major watercourses and...while we are doing that we do need to look at various green technologies that can assist."