City of Bridgetown MP Corey Lane wants his constituents, particularly those living around Kensington Oval, to be given a chance to benefit from the staging of the T20 World Cup in June.
Kensington Oval is set to host the final, along with eight other matches in the tournament which will be played in the Caribbean and at select grounds in the US.
Lane told a Barbados Labour Party City Branch meeting at the party’s Roebuck Street headquarters on Sunday that he was disappointed with the lack of involvement of “the City of Bridgetown, its MP, and its people with the planning and execution of World Cup Barbados so far”.
He said: “The last time, I know that we had two years, and this time, we have a short amount of time, but the fact of the matter is, I have been knocking at the door of the organisers up to the Prime Minister in relation to the World Cup because people have a certain expectation. The last time the World Cup came, the roads were paved with gold and running with honey, and now the World Cup is coming again, and that is what my people are looking for. But they didn’t even get a glass of water. So that is something, as an MP, I will continue to represent you on, with the Prime Minister, with the organisers, and I will not be backing down.
“I believe that we can get an update on what is going on with the World Cup, and how the City of Bridgetown, particularly Pickwick Gap, New Orleans, and surrounding areas, can get a piece of the pie, particularly the economic pie. I think it would be advantageous to be able to have some kind of income-earning activity for World Cup in Barbados. So I say without fear or favour, I’m disappointed in the way they are treating the City of Bridgetown where the World Cup is concerned. And I make no apologies for it.”
Noel Lynch, chairman of the tournament’s National Organising Committee, has vowed to residents that there would be opportunities for them while stressing the importance of involving residents and local businesses in and around Kensington Oval, and called for ongoing collaboration. He also said a “good neighbour” programme is being organised to foster a sense of community and inclusivity.
“Remember in 2007 there was a lot of fixing up of houses in the area but obviously, because of the time frame, we can’t do that now,” said Lynch on Friday. “What we’re doing is we had a good sample of the residents in and around Kensington Oval. Most of them were very positive but one of the things that you need to do is constantly engage them and we’ve never had a set-up where we had a good neighbour programme constantly going on. That is being put in place by KOMI – Kensington Oval Management Inc,” Lynch had said.
“The second thing is if you want something done in and around Kensington Oval in terms of vendors, for example, find out who out there does vending and whether or not they’re interested in being a part of what’s going on…. There’s going to be a register of residents, there’s going to be a register of the skills, there’s going to be a register of providers so that whenever there is anything going on at Kensington . . . obviously Kensington has its own maintenance people and whatever, but you know there’s nothing wrong in being able to get one of the residents who wants to or who’s looking for an opportunity. ”
Lynch also revealed that KOMI had met with Trust Loans, Fund Access and the Ministry of Small Business to provide opportunities for area businesses during events at Kensington Oval.
(RG)
