Friday, November 13 2009

THE Port-of-Spain Academy for the Performing Arts might not have been designed to hold Carnival fetes but it can host different types of cultural events.

This was Planning, Housing and Environment Minister Dr Emily Gaynor Dick-Forde’s response to promoters, one day after Prime Minister Patrick Manning said they should build their own venues if they did not respect the Sports Ministry’s decision to ban the staging of cultural shows and Carnival fetes at sports facilities.

Dick-Forde was addressing yesterday’s post-Cabinet news conference at the Office of the Prime Minister, St Clair.

She asked whether some people felt the academy should have been built to hold Carnival fetes.

The minister supported Manning’s position that the academy did in fact possess smaller spaces to hold more intimate events such as theatre productions.

“Those facilities are in the college part of the academy.

All that was showcased on Monday (when the academy opened) was the broader theatre,” she said. Dick-Forde added that the University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT) will hold a press conference about these facilities.

Dick-Forde said the maintenance contract for the academy is not yet finalised and the contractor, Shanghai Construction Group, will pass on the specific data about the facility to whoever is charged with this responsibility.

She said Cabinet agreed that UTT would oversee this aspect but would not be directly involved in the academy’s maintenance.

After saying measures would be examined to ensure the safety of patrons attending shows at the academy, Works and Transport Minister Colm Imbert said the construction of the Customs and Excise Building on Wrightson Road is at least one year overdue.

“My understanding is that there is some dispute between Udecott and the contractor (NH International),” Imbert said.

Dick Forde had no comment to make on a housing project in Valsayn which involved a company owned by late contractor Hafeez Karamath.

“That is Karamath family business,” she said.