Ministries join forces to finish Beetham community centre
COMMUNITY Development Minister Winston “Gypsy” Peters announced yesterday that his ministry has formed an alliance with the National Security Ministry in a bid to get the Beetham Gardens Community Centre completed.
Peters spoke to reporters after touring the incomplete site on the western side of Beetham Gardens parallel to the Priority Bus Route.
Construction of the community centre began in 2006 under the then People’s National Movement administration following days of rioting in the community which also led to residents blocking both the Priority Bus Route and Beetham Highway, the Express reported then.
The residents complained that nothing was being done for them and that the Government did not care about the Beetham Gardens Community because they were poor.
Work stopped in early 2007 when contractors complained their workers were being threatened, attacked, robbed and shot at while on the site.
Employees later abandoned the project.
Since that time items and fixtures previously installed in the building have been looted and what remains is a shell.
Peters said when completed, the community centre should offer residents of the Beetham Gardens community and other east Port of Spain neighbourhoods a chance to interact with each other and bring an end to the “border wars” between gangs from both areas.
Since the beginning of 2013 four men from Beetham Gardens and Laventille have been murdered.
Thirteen men from both communities have been shot as a result of the gang war between the two communities.
Since March police have recorded little gang activity between the two communities.