PM wants end to Cathedral, Planning stand-off

An American historical conservation firm has placed a price tag of almost $24 million for the restoration of the 198-year-old St George’s Cathedral in Kingstown.

In October 2018, the Anglican church was served with an enforcement order by the Physical Planning and Development board to halt repairs to the building.

The church also received a letter last August from the St Vincent and the Grenadines National Trust, which declared that the Cathedral has been declared Protected National Heritage by the Trust in 2010, in order to ensure that “this building of architectural and cultural significance is preserved for posterity.”

Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves, last week said that he does not involve himself in the technical work of the Planning authorities. He was responding to a question of whether the government would intervene so that the order can be lifted so that renovations can be completed in time for the Cathedral’s 200th anniversary.

He added that if an issue arises which is of national importance, he will inquire and see if he can connect the parties involved.

“I had been appraised of what was being done earlier, because a group came, some international group and the bishop had brought them, other persons and they had explained what they want to do and talked about the historic significance of this building and so forth,” Gonsalves said.

The prime minister said that he understands that the group, which is called Atlantic Heritage, said the cost would be around $24 million and that it was a huge number.

According to the group’s website, Atlantic Heritage is a non-profit entity that was designed to foster documentation and conservation of selected significant built cultural patrimony of the Americas, with a dedicated focus on sites located in the early historic era cultural hearths and their zones of influence.

The group’s aim is to help in projects by providing organizational, planning, technical or any other assistance.

“I am sure that the church would like to have it done so, but where is the money coming from?” he questioned.

According to documents obtained by SEARCHLIGHT, the Trust told the Anglican Church that all work carried out on the building must be approved by them, as well as the Physical Planning Department, which must be notified and provided with the plans and specifications and allowed full access to the site to carry out inspection of the work.

Someone close to the Trust also said the repair process at the Cathedral was not being carried out by persons with the skills required to handle the refurbishment of historical structures, and damage was being done to the almost 200-year-old structure.

Gonsalves, at Tuesday’s press conference said he thought the church was exploring the possibilities but then he received an e-mail from Atlantic Heritage, which informed him that the church was doing things contrary to what they had outlined.

The e-mail, which was sent by J.Alex Mebane Reinburg, said that the conservation project of the Anglican Church has been met with “some crippling road blocks and challenges”, mainly being the deviation from standards and methods previously discussed in 2017.

“We have all placed a great amount of coordinated work, time, and resources toward the project and conservation of this extraordinarily important, and until quite recently, largely undamaged monument of national, regional and worldwide heritage significance,” the e-mail said. “It is always a sad occasion when short-sightedness, wilful disregard and lack of transparency lay waste to the achievements of human labour and to the witness of historic buildings to the lives and skilled effort of our forebears and predecessors.”

Several persons including Louise Mitchell and Osei Morris of the St Vincent and the Grenadines National Trust, Julian Francis, the minister of Transport and Works and René Baptiste were copied on the e-mail.

The e-mail was not directly sent to any representative of the Anglican Church but the Prime Minister, on Tuesday, said that he had the e-mail forwarded to them.

“The church, the leadership of the church, adopts what is a common sense position in the absence of that money, saying we will do it as best as we can and keep it to its condition as how it was originally within certain means,” Gonsalves said. “This is really essentially, the challenge there is to cut your cloth to suit the size which at the same time, satisfies the condition of maintaining this architecture, this historic architecture in some pristine manner.”

The prime minister noted that the government does offer help to churches and made reference to the $250,000 grant that was in SVG’s 2018 budget for the restoration of the Anglican Cathedral.

He said that he did not like the “stand-off” between the church and Physical Planning and he is hoping that “some meetings of the mind can take place”.

Gonsalves further called on the private sector to make donations to the church, as it is an important landmark in this country.

“It’s a splendid building and we have to do our best to keep it in a pristine condition, but a price tag of $24 million or whatever that number is or close to that, is not an easy number,” he said.