ACP calls for rethink of large fetes in Chaguaramas

Shane Su­perville

Se­nior Re­porter

shane.su­[email protected]

As­sis­tant Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice (ACP) Garvin Hen­ry, who over­sees the North-West area in­clud­ing the Port-of-Spain and West­ern Di­vi­sions, said that de­spite se­vere traf­fic con­ges­tion fol­low­ing the Stink + Dut­ty fete ear­ly Sat­ur­day, mea­sures were de­ployed to mit­i­gate the dis­rup­tion.

The event, usu­al­ly host­ed at the Bri­an Lara Crick­et Acad­e­my (BLCA), was re­lo­cat­ed to the Ch­aguara­mas He­li­port this year fol­low­ing the gov­ern­ment’s de­ci­sion to ban cul­tur­al events at sport­ing fa­cil­i­ties.

Af­ter the fete, large crowds packed the West­ern Main Road, with some pa­trons stuck in traf­fic for hours be­fore the streets were cleared. Sev­er­al busi­ness­es in Ch­aguara­mas and Care­nage re­port­ed­ly re­mained closed due to in­ac­ces­si­bil­i­ty.

Hen­ry said he wit­nessed the sig­nif­i­cant traf­fic build-up first­hand while as­sist­ing in traf­fic man­age­ment from 11 pm Fri­day to 3 am Sat­ur­day.

“Po­lice, traf­fic war­dens, and wreck­ers were on-site to help ease con­ges­tion, but it was still chal­leng­ing giv­en the sheer num­ber of at­ten­dees and the ge­og­ra­phy of Ch­aguara­mas, which is ac­ces­si­ble via on­ly one route,” he said.

Hen­ry com­mend­ed event pro­mot­ers for work­ing close­ly with au­thor­i­ties, in­clud­ing the use of the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um as a “park and ride” shut­tle point. How­ev­er, he not­ed that even with these arrange­ments, smooth traf­fic flow was dif­fi­cult to achieve for the es­ti­mat­ed 17,000 at­ten­dees.

“They more or less spared no ex­pense to en­sure we could ex­e­cute our op­er­a­tional plan. We had over 100 of­fi­cers, traf­fic war­dens, wreck­ers, bar­ri­ers, and no-park­ing signs. We had to tow nu­mer­ous ve­hi­cles be­cause when the car parks were full, peo­ple went in­to Mac­queripe to park, and park­ing on the West­ern Main Road was pro­hib­it­ed,” Hen­ry said.

“There was a ro­bust traf­fic plan, but the re­al­i­ty is that even on a nor­mal Sun­day by around 3.30 pm, Care­nage ex­pe­ri­ences bumper-to-bumper traf­fic with beach-go­ers, em­ploy­ees, and res­i­dents. Any event of this mag­ni­tude will in­evitably cause ex­tend­ed con­ges­tion.”

In a video shared on Face­book, Min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Hous­ing Phillip Ed­ward Alexan­der raised sim­i­lar con­cerns about park­ing arrange­ments at the St An­tho­ny’s Col­lege fete in West­moor­ings, de­scrib­ing the sit­u­a­tion as “un­ac­cept­able” and ques­tion­ing what mea­sures would be avail­able for pa­trons.

When asked if the po­lice would com­pile a re­port on the fea­si­bil­i­ty of host­ing sim­i­lar events in Ch­aguara­mas in the fu­ture, Hen­ry said it is un­der con­sid­er­a­tion.

“What we have to pon­der now is whether the west­ern penin­su­la should host an event of this mag­ni­tude in the fu­ture. Traf­fic even­tu­al­ly dis­si­pates, but it caused hours of in­con­ve­nience. The po­lice re­mained on-site un­til traf­fic was man­age­able, but it last­ed about four hours,” he said.

Re­spond­ing via What­sApp, Act­ing Pres­i­dent of the T&T Pro­mot­ers’ As­so­ci­a­tion (TTPA) Asha Atiya Greene said pro­mot­ers work close­ly with au­thor­i­ties to es­tab­lish traf­fic plans, but some dif­fi­cul­ties are un­avoid­able due to venue lay­out and lo­ca­tion.

“The west­ern penin­su­la has in­her­ent chal­lenges be­cause of its lim­it­ed ac­cess and ex­it routes. Con­ges­tion can arise from weath­er, ac­ci­dents, and ma­jor ac­tiv­i­ties. These re­al­i­ties are well un­der­stood by event pro­duc­ers,” Greene said.

“Mem­bers of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Pro­mot­ers’ As­so­ci­a­tion re­main mind­ful of these con­straints and con­sis­tent­ly fac­tor them in­to plan­ning and co­or­di­na­tion ef­forts for events in the west­ern penin­su­la and sim­i­lar lo­ca­tions.”