Diego Martin corp gets 2 police cars as councillors sworn in

The ten newly instated councillors of the Diego Martin Borough Corporation will be getting a boost to their ability to provide services to their burgesses with the corporation’s recent acquisition of two additional police vehicles.

Diego Martin became a borough after the Miscellaneous Provisions (Establishment of the Borough of Diego Martin and Borough of Siparia) Bill, 2021 was passed in Parliament in June.

On Friday, the new councillors were sworn in at the Bagatelle Community Centre, Diego Martin.

Returning to the position of councillor were Alina Renn, Keeda James, Avanelle Boyce, Amber Caines and Marcia Marslin. New to the job were Samuel Carter, Kevon Williams, Damian Fournillier, Lisa Richards-Cole and Chelsea Mendez.

All ten are PNM candidates that won their seats in the recently concluded local government election on August 14.

Speaking to members of the media after the event, the corporation’s outgoing chairman, Sigler Jack, said he handed over two vehicles to the municipal police earlier that day. He said the corporation got one vehicle about two months ago but believed a minimum of five vehicles combined with working with the TT Police Service, would help with “challenges with elements” in certain areas.

He said workers ocassionally asked for police to go with them or workers would refuse to go into an area because they felt threatened, so crime was impacting service in the corporation.

“Let me just say that we know we are nowhere near to how many more vehicles that we need to do our patrols and all the different things we have to do. However, our stock of vehicles right now is three. And I believe that if we get two more very soon, it will help much better.”

He added that the municipal police currently had 34 officers but the corporation was aiming for 100. He hoped a full complement would be available soon as training was ongoing at the Municipal Police Academy in Marabella.

He said he was told the corporation would have three or four aldermen who should be sworn in next week along with the mayor and deputy mayor.

In addition, Jack praised the corporation’s disaster management unit. He described it as one of the best in the country and said the corporation was ready for any adverse effects of the hurricane season.

“However, I want to caution the public that our job as a corporation when dealing with disaster is to make people immediately comfortable. Our function is not actually return and supply everything you may have lost. We have agencies for that.”

In his address during the swearing in ceremony, Jack called the councillors agents of change in the new system of local government reform, saying they were the first respondents to the public’s every need.

He advised them not to abuse their privilege for their own “personal aggrandisement” because everything had a price and consequences. Instead he told them to “face the people one-on-one,” especially when there was trouble or in times of disaster.

Also present at the swearing in was MP for Diego Martin North East Colm Imbert, who refused to speak with the media, and MP for Diego Martin Central Symon de Nobriga. The Prime Minister, Diego Martin West MP Dr Keith Rowley, was supposed to attend but changed his plans just before the event.

de Nobriga said he was confident in the new team but was aware there was a learning curve to understanding how the corporation worked.

He said he expected the job to be challenging but that incoming mayor Akeilah Glasgow already expressed the importance of retreats at the very start of their terms so everyone would be on the same page.

Asked about the situation last weekend when 75 Caribbean Airlines pilots called in sick and caused 60 domestic and international flights to be cancelled, de Nobriga said he did not want to say anything that could impact the ongoing negotiations.

“I think government has signalled its awareness by the Minister of Labour stepping in to assist with those negotiations...

“And I just hope that we could get to the end of it as quickly as possible because, as the end of this, who really pays? At the end of it, the only people who are really being impacted is the travelling public.”