Hospital workers blocked during San Fernando military parade

San Fernando hospital workers were among scores of people affected by blocked-off streets on Saturday to allow a military parade as part of the activities to celebrate the 36th anniversary of city status.

People heading to work from around 8 am had to walk for miles to get to their destinations.

Hospital workers arriving from St James Steet, Vistabella and the environs parked their cars at the bottom of High Street near Courts, blocking the road, after the police refused them entry to access their workplace.

Hospital security officers had to intervene and speak with senior police before the workers were allowed to drive to their workplace.

Business owners, who usually close at noon in the city, sat in their commercial buildings waiting for hours for customers to arrive. The parade began shortly after 10 am, although it was scheduled to start at 9 am.

Access from the traffic lights at Chancery Lane from the Rienzi Kirton Highway and Gulf City was also blocked off by police barriers. Taxis and other drivers had to drop off passengers at the top, or make a u-turn and head back down the streets.

Entry from Cross Crossing to Cipero and Coffee Streets to Harris Promenade was cordoned off with police barriers, as well as all the side streets leading to these two main streets.

Responding to the complaints, San Fernando mayor Robert Parris defended the right to celebrate city status with such a parade.

“I don't think you could please everyone.

“I walked on Cipero Street with my staff and we gave our information. There is also social media information that we gave out, we used the media to give out information, but I think we need to go back to civic pride.

“This military parade was not a vanity parade for me. This is about San Fernando and we should celebrate 36 years as a city in fine style. The defence force has indicated that this would be a grand military parade and I just hope that San Fernandians who think like me appreciate it.”

Parris said he was unaware hospital workers were affected.

“Let me apologise for any inconvenience for anyone. Again, it isn't our intent to inconvenience everyone, but it is only for a few hours and we do need something like this.

“Let me tell you the catch-22 with this. When we have an independence parade in Port of Spain, San Fernando complains we want something like this. Now we are having it for City Month, what is the problem with this, ladies and gentlemen, what is the problem? We need to have civic pride. We celebrate 36 years as a city. I am proud to be your mayor and I am sorry for the inconvenience.”

President of the Greater San Fernando Chamber Kiran Singh acknowledged that some business activity might have been curtailed due to the celebrations but he saw a positive side to the small inconvenience.

“What it also did for us in San Fernando was to bring people into San Fernando to view the cultural activities we had, culturally, socially and of course, from a business perspective, which we have to appreciate and acknowledge.”

While there was some inconvenience with the traffic, caused by the blocking of roads to let certain activities to take place, Singh noted several notices were put out before the event to highlight the routes that were being used.

Nevertheless, he suggested, “We want police to bear in mind that when these routes are being mapped out prior to events, they should take into account the central services that need to have easy access to their workplace, for example, hospital workers, so they could take care of their patients.”