Rhon­da Krys­tal Ram­bal­ly

Port-of-Spain May­or Louis Lee Sing says no glass bot­tles will be al­lowed in the city on Car­ni­val Mon­day and Tues­day next year. He said glass bot­tles would be tak­en away per­sons those found with them and should some­one refuse to give it up, charges of re­sist­ing ar­rest would like­ly be laid. He said ap­pro­pri­ate no­tices and warn­ings will be made avail­able. Lee Sing said the use of glass bot­tles had been a cause for con­cern since the ori­gin of the city's Car­ni­val. When asked if a law ex­ist­ed pro­hibit­ing its use, he replied no, say­ing how­ev­er, there is a res­o­lu­tion with­in the coun­cil. "We are in charge of this city. Car­ni­val is un­der our procla­ma­tion. "You think we do these procla­ma­tions every year be­cause we don't have to?" he said.

Lee Sing was speak­ing to the me­dia at a press con­fer­ence yes­ter­day at City Hall, Knox Street, in Port-of-Spain, to an­nounce plans for Car­ni­val 2012. Among some of the oth­er plans are an in­crease in the prizes; pro­hi­bi­tion of vend­ing in cer­tain ar­eas; and the trans­for­ma­tion of Wood­ford Square in­to a Car­ni­val Pic­nic Square. Lee Sing said: "Peo­ple have al­ways found the glass bot­tle an ex­cel­lent in­stru­ment of vi­o­lence which is to say it is used as a weapon to be thrown." He said af­ter some con­sid­er­a­tion the city de­cid­ed to do some­thing to dis­cour­age the use of glass bot­tles and wrote to the rel­e­vant man­u­fac­tur­ers to alert them "that the sale of glass bot­tles and drinks in glass ma­te­r­i­al will be pro­hib­it­ed with­in the city."

He said City Po­lice will be on the alert and the Cor­po­ra­tion will en­gage Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Dwayne Gibbs and his of­fi­cers and oth­er se­cu­ri­ty forces to en­sure drinks in glass bot­tles are not on sale. Lee Sing said the city's Car­ni­val route will in­clude Char­lotte Street and Pic­cadil­ly Greens. He said last year there was "tremen­dous" bot­tle­neck at the Queen's Park Sa­van­nah (QPS) large­ly be­cause the bands went up Fred­er­ick Street. "The beau­ty of the mas is the mo­bil­i­ty," he said. Deputy may­or and chair­man of the city's Car­ni­val com­mit­tee, Keron Valen­tine, said prizes for Down­town Car­ni­val Band of the Year had dou­bled. He said win­ners will now re­ceive $40,000, $30,000 and $25,000 for first, sec­ond and third places re­spec­tive­ly.

Changes planned

• Big screen TVs for pay­ing pa­trons down­town

• No J'ou­vert bands al­lowed in­to res­i­den­tial ar­eas not with­in pa­rade route

• Crim­i­nal charges for J'ou­vert bands band­lead­ers whose mas­quer­aders de­face peo­ple's prop­er­ties

• Per­mis­sion and pay­ment for ban­ners and pen­nants at City Hall

• Users of Car­ni­val Pic­nic Square (Wood­ford Square) to pay fee

• No vend­ing al­lowed on Ari­api­ta Av­enue be­tween Al­fre­do and Fitt Streets; South Quay; New Street to the QPS and Memo­r­i­al Park.