IT is official.
The Grand Stand at Queen’s Park Savannah is scheduled to be demolished in the new year, dashing all hopes of masqueraders enjoying another Carnival crossing the big stage.
However, Minister of Community, Culture and Gender Affairs Joan Yuille-Williams is yet to announce an alternative venue or venues for major events traditionally held there.
Yuille-Williams promised on Friday that plans would be revealed yesterday after a meeting between the Ministry and officials of the Urban Development Corporation of T&T (Udecott).
A media release yesterday from Udecott, however, made no mention of alternative Carnival plans. Instead the organisation announced its “regret” in informing the national community of the Grand Stand’s demolition.
“As many would appreciate, after dealing with the projected cost for the new Savannah facility that was almost double in price of what Cabinet had authorised, Udecott was forced to address the issue of value engineering and methodology in an effort to bring this project to within the cost parameters established by the Government of T&T.
“Udecott now feels that this development can go forward within the price parameters established by the Government and proposals from pre-qualified contractors will be sought in early 2007,” stated the release.
According to Udecott, it is now “absolutely imperative” that tenders be let for immediate demolition of the Grand Stand and other supporting buildings.
This means, the paddocks and head offices of the National Carnival Commission (NCC) and the National Carnival Bands’ Association (NCBA) at the Queen’s Park Savannah will be “hoarded” for salvage material early in the new year.
“A salvage of value materials is likely to be in the range of several million dollars and Udecott intends to dismantle the structure similar to the North Stand so that these facilities could be reassembled for use in other areas of the country,” said Udecott.
Shand: Demolish but
don’t build
Support for the demolition has come from an unlikely source as environmentalist Eden Shand when contacted yesterday said it was time for the Grand Stand to go.
“I don’t mind that they break down the Grand Stand because that should go. What I want them to do is not build,”he said.
Shand claimed that the Environmental Management Authority, “failed us by giving this project a Certificate of Environmental Clearance without a public consultation.”
He alleged that the procurement process for the project has gone awry and while the $450 million Carnival Cultural Centre to be erected has a conceptual design, the project is being tendered as a “design/build.”
“My understanding on the Savannah is that the conceptual will be used and whoever gets the design/build will follow that concept...the design builder has not been selected as yet. If the Chinese come in and say they want to be the design builders do we have to guess which way the contract will go?”
Shand claimed that QPS could be following in the footsteps of the Performing Arts Centre which was being constructed by the Chinese Government at the Princes Building Grounds, in Port-of-Spain.
“If you rush to give out this contract I will smell a dirty rat,”he said.
The salvage demolition process according to Udecott is scheduled to take three months after which the new facility will commence “as soon as possible.”
©2005-2006 Trinidad Publishing Company Limited
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