An­na-Lisa Paul

Se­nior Re­porter

an­na-lisa.paul@guardian.co.tt

No firearms, al­co­hol or over­sized cool­ers will be al­lowed in­to the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah (QPS), Port-of-Spain, to­mor­row, when the fi­nals of the Ju­nior Panora­ma take place.

Is­su­ing sev­er­al guide­lines yes­ter­day dur­ing a me­dia brief­ing at the Po­lice Ad­min­is­tra­tion Build­ing, Port-of-Spain, Gold Com­man­der Richard Smith ad­vised per­sons to pay at­ten­tion to the new di­rec­tives.

The As­sis­tant Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice (ACP) urged the hold­ers of Firearms User’s Li­cences (FULs) to leave their weapons safe­ly locked in their homes or lodged at the near­est po­lice sta­tion.

The Ju­nior Panora­ma Fi­nals are sched­uled to be held at the QPS to­mor­row, and the North Stand has been erect­ed ear­ly to ac­com­mo­date the es­ti­mat­ed crowd, which is an­tic­i­pat­ed to cross 4,000.

To all FUL hold­ers, Smith said, “No firearms will be al­lowed at that venue.”

In ad­di­tion, Smith added, “No al­co­hol will be al­lowed at that venue as well be­cause we are hav­ing chil­dren there.”

Ex­pect­ing be­tween 8,000 and 10,000 chil­dren and their par­ents/guardians to be present, Smith al­so ap­pealed for peo­ple to be mind­ful of bring­ing over­sized cool­ers to the event and crowd­ing the North Stand, as it could pose a threat.

He strong­ly ad­vised against the friend­ly com­pe­ti­tion to out­do one an­oth­er with over­sized cool­ers.

“We know that there is some­times com­pe­ti­tion for who can have the biggest cool­er ... the coffins, the fridges and all these things. They con­tribute to the weight on that stand, and we do not need any ad­di­tion­al weight, and we are look­ing at the ca­pac­i­ty there, which could be ap­prox­i­mate­ly 4,000 to 4,500 per­sons,” he said.

“When you add these ad­di­tion­al cool­ers and these fridges and an ex­ces­sive amount of equip­ment on that stand, it is putting ex­ces­sive weight and can cause some form of dan­ger.”

Smith said there would be a strict en­force­ment of the lat­est reg­u­la­tions to en­sure safe­ty and or­der is main­tained. For those not want­i­ng to leave their firearms be­hind, Smith said there will be a des­ig­nat­ed area at the QPS for them to lodge their weapons.

A re­lease from the Min­istry of Tourism, Cul­ture and the Arts yes­ter­day said, “With up­grad­ed fa­cil­i­ties, en­hanced se­cu­ri­ty mea­sures, and a va­ri­ety of en­gag­ing ac­tiv­i­ties, Trinidad and To­ba­go’s Car­ni­val 2025 is set to leave an in­deli­ble mark on every­one who par­tic­i­pates.”

Min­is­ter of Tourism Ran­dall Mitchell added, “This year’s im­prove­ments and ini­tia­tives are de­signed to up­lift not just the fes­tiv­i­ties but al­so the spir­it of our na­tion.”