PM promises police sub-station at Ottley Hall

Persons in the Ottley Hall community will have to get accustomed to seeing more of the Prime Minister, as he says he will be making regular visits there in the future.{{more}}

Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves said while he is used to visiting various communities across the country, the people of Ottley Hall will see more of him.

Gonsalves said that he was not prepared to react to any possible criticism that his visits may be solely to score political points.

“I always say good policy is good politics, but I am too old to go about scoring political points,” he said.

The prime minister was in the community, which has had to deal with issues of violent crime in the past, interacting with residents, last Thursday, January 26.

He was of the opinion that the people of that area are peaceful people, but that there were one or two persons in the community who are ill-disciplined and profited from crime.

Gonsalves further contended that there were a number of persons from outside the community who came in to create problems in Ottley Hall.

While the prime minister addressed the success of having a 24-hour police presence in the area, he said that there were other more complex issues affecting areas such as Ottley Hall.

“There are issues in the community of persons who have not completed requisite areas of training and therefore may not have all the necessary skills,” Gonsalves said, adding that this was a challenge.

“We spend a lot of money on education and we have to pull in more persons who have been in school and who have dropped out in form 4 or form 5,” he continued.

Some of the issues affecting the community were not related to academics or money the prime minister continued, but it was important to have all the issues addressed in a comprehensive manner, which he maintained was an ongoing challenge.

The immediate measure of putting in the police mobile unit had assisted in the short term, Gonsalves explained, as had been expressed by the residents he interacted with.

He identified at least two other immediate measures that would be put into effect. The first is a search for an ideal spot in the community to facilitate the setting up of a police sub-station.

Additionally, he said he had spoken to Thornley Myers, Chief Executive Officer of VINLEC to present a report on the number of street lights that would be required and to give an idea of the areas within Ottley Hall that needed to be illuminated right away. (DD)