Mayaro/Rio Claro Corporation chair calls for local government reform

MAYARO/Rio Claro Regional Corporation chairman Raymond Cozier wants local government reform.

He made the call last Thursday at the UNC's True Talk virtual public meeting.

“We need to have a new local economic development strategy. Our communities are in a serious dilemma,” Cozier said.

Cozier joined other council members who complained about bad roads, a lack of basic resources like access to water, and all-round bad management of the country by the PNM.

He also knocked the PNM for not making good on their promises.

“This is a time we really need a Government that has the capacity and tenacity to be creative and develop new ideas. But this (PNM) leader has no plan and no vision. Right now we don’t know where we are, and what is our next move. No amount of scaremongering is going to sustain any solutions to the situation.”

UNC councilor for Ecclesville Shaffik Mohammed boasted of infrastructure developed by the UNC for sport in Mayaro. He said the only way for sport to progress was for the UNC to return.

“For years, the sportsmen and women of the region have been crying out for basic amenities to improve their discipline to no avail. I can boast of recreational grounds that under the UNC now have lights.”

He also boasted of recreational grounds in Ecclesville, Unionsville, Guayaguayare and other areas in the constituency.

The councillor gave the UNC credit for the success of four young men from the constituency who were short-listed for the TT cricket team and the West Indies Under 19 teams.

He lauded the leadership of “the best minister for sport, Anil Roberts,” for infrastructural development and blamed the PNM for the conditions the facilities are under today.

“Today when you look at these facilities they have been run down. Because of the lack of releases by this wicked PNM government the sporting facilities have become deteriorated. The only hope we have to see with sporting facilities is the return of the UNC government.”