BY ANDRE BAGOO Tuesday, February 26 2008

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ANYA FOR MISS UNIVERSE: Anya Ayoung-Chee, 26, won over the audience and the judges' hearts on Sunday, capturing the Miss Trinidad and Tobago Universe...

WHILE THEY are reluctant to see the historic Gingerbread House leave their family, the owners say they have no choice but to put the centuries old property on the market because it has become increasingly difficult for them to maintain.

Bernard Elliott, the husband of the building’s owner Greta Elliott, yesterday told Newsday that the family’s inability to maintain the property, officially known as the Boissiere House, has actually put it at risk of physical deterioration.

“I would like to see it remain in the family,” he said. “We have been having trouble to maintain it. It is getting harder and harder. (The property) is getting run down.”

Legislation designed to help families like the Elliotts has over the last eight years been ineffective because of a bureaucratic disagreement over how the legislation is to be implemented.

Newsday has learnt that landmarks remain unprotected by the National Trust legislation because of divergence of views over the procedure for the listing of properties for protection among the Trust, the Office of the Attorney General and the Culture Ministry.

This is why not a single landmark on a National Trust short-list, including the Gingerbread House, has been listed on a protected properties register, according to Vel Lewis, chairman of the Trust.

Lewis said the Trust last year submitted a list of properties for protection under the 1991 National Trust Act to the Culture Ministry. However, the list was not posted on the register as the Ministry queried whether it was submitted under the correct legal procedure.

“We were advised by the Attorney General’s office that it is not as simple as drawing up a list and getting the minister to approve it,” Lewis said.

So much so that the Trust has hired an independent legal officer to liaise with the AG’s Office.