$46M to restore Mille Fleur
CABINET yesterday approved $700,000 to undertake immediate emergency work on the crumbling Mille Fleur building, which is on the verge of imminent collapse in the midst of the rainy season.
National Diversity Minister Clifton De Coteau made this announcement at the post-Cabinet news conference at the Diplomatic Centre, St Ann’s. “What has happened over a period of time…this building has deteriorated,” De Coteau explained.
Noting that concerned citizens appealed to the former People’s National Movement (PNM) administration to do something to restore Mille Fleur, but their appeals yielded “no positive result”, De Coteau stated: “It has reached a point where with the coming rainfall, if something is not done with haste, the building would collapse.”
“As such, Cabinet has approved an estimated cost of $700,000 to effect emergency stabilisation work,” he added. De Coteau indicated these works will be undertaken by the Urban Development Corporation (Udecott) through the Works Ministry. He said when the restoration of Mille Fleur is completed by March of 2015, “it should be at a total cost of $46,646,600.”
De Coteau explained that
$30 million of this sum will be allocated for work earmarked for 2014 and the remainder will be for work in 2015. Asked if similar restorative works will be done on other buildings which comprise the Magnificent Seven, of which Mille Fleur is one, De Coteau said that will be determined in consultation with the National Trust.
The Magnificent Seven is a group of mansions located at the northwest corner of Queen’s Park Savannah on Maraval Road. From north to south, the mansions are: Killarney, Whitehall, Arch-
bishop’s House, Roomor, Mille Fleur, Hayes Court and Queen’s Royal College.