Minister Jacobs raps M&CC for Community Grounds’ neglect

Minister within the Sport Ministry, Steven Jacobs, on Sunday discussed renewed efforts to ensure the upgrades and maintenance of community grounds around the country.
During a sit-down with the Starting Point Podcast, the cricketer- turned-politician divulged details on the new system, which includes documentation, oversight, and collaboration with their fellow ministries.

Jacobs explained, “So, what we’ve done, based on the President’s directive, we’ve mapped every single ground in the entire country, photographed every piece of infrastructure in each one of these grounds, and then what we’ve also set out to do is to create ground committees. Not just for only persons who are living in the communities; we want to extend. So, what we’ve done is added somebody from the RDC, NDC, somebody from the three main religions in the country, somebody from the Office of the President, and someone from the Ministry of Culture, Youth, and Sport.”

Referencing the varied personnel on the committees, the Minister described how it can be for residents to make reports about their community grounds.

As such, the Minister went on to note, “So, that is how we formulate the plan to fix any community ground issue, and we’re rolling that out extensively. Added to that, we’re working very closely with the Ministry of Local Government so that we could have a maintenance program in place, of which we’re near finalizing.”

The Minister also took the opportunity to rap the APNU/AFC-controlled Mayor and City Council of Georgetown for neglecting those facilities for years.

“Open spaces in Georgetown are under their management, not control. So, we’ve known for years that the Mayor and City Council have neglected all of these facilities, grounds, open spaces, and also drainage; garbage collection, everything basically is not where it should be. So, His Excellency and the Government, we said that we’re going to make sure that we take the responsibility of which we’ve started extensively,” Jacobs expressed.

The Minister further assured, “We are taking the role and the lead in making sure that these community facilities are something that every single person can be proud of, and that families can go and relax and have quality family time.”