A new row is brewing between San Fernando West Member of Parliament Carolyn Seepersad-Bachan and Mayor Marlene Coudray over the latter's decision to press forward with a boardwalk for the southern city. Coudray, who is attending a Local Government conference in Belize, sent out letters of invitation before she left to various people to tour the new boardwalk at Chaguaramas next Wednesday.
According to the invitation, members of the media, SFCC Council and Chief Officers and the Cabinet-appointed Committee for the San Fernando Waterfront Project, have also been invited to attend. Members of the San Fernando Business Association (SBA) who received the invitations have expressed delight at the planned tour, which is being encouraged by Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, for the further development of the southern waterfront.
Seepersad-Bachan said yesterday she was not invited by the mayor to be part of the tour. She said her proposal for the San Fernando Waterfront Project, which is now the subject of a feasibility study by the Minister of Planning and the Economy, incorporates a boardwalk with proper seafood restaurants and other facilities, starting from Embacadere and going all the way to the yacht club in Vistabella.
A conceptual design has been developed, encompassing ideas from previous plans, and was unveiled at several consultations she held in San Fernando. Seepersad-Bachan said the boardwalk was scheduled for construction in the first phase of the project. She said: "Money has been allocated to do a feasibility under the Ministry of Planning but that is how we waste money. While they constructing we are now doing a feasibility study."
The Public Administration Minister also said she knew nothing about a Cabinet-appointed Committee for the San Fernando Waterfront Project, which the mayor has invited to the tour. She added: "I think I am a Cabinet Minister and as a Cabinet Minister I ought to know if there is a Cabinet-appointed committee by this Government.
"I do not know what Cabinet-appointed committee she is leading, whether it is PNM or UNC or NAR, because as far as I am concerned, there is no Cabinet-appointed committee by this Government."