Sunday September 11th saw the opening ceremony for the New Layou Pavilion take place, with Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves present.
Prime Minister Gonsalves during his presentation at the ceremony urged members of the Layou community to be vocal and to reach out to authorities when any abuse of the new sporting facility is taking place.
He was at the time making particular mention of a situation where an individual had attempted to take over to facility for his own personal use.
“I’m very disappointed that an individual decided that he is going to turn this place into his own personal accommodation, and then even after the repairs—renovations, again were done, that, the police had to be called in.
I just want to urge the people of Layou, that anytime you see anybody misusing or abusing these facilities, report them. Tell Orando about it, and if they are doing anything criminal, like breaking off locks and pulling down this or that; inform the police. Because we have to have proper order in order to maintain these facilities. They are built here for the community purpose, not for an individual,” Gonsalves.
Dr. Gonsalves said this is a point that community must be very firm on.
While remarking that the work on the new Layou pavilion’s cost of $400,000, the Prime Minister also addressed calls by the public to have lights installed at the facility.
He noted that while he is on board with having the lights installed, to have them installed would cost approximately USD $1 million, for the purpose of football games. He indicated that the cost for lighting for cricket games would be even higher.