00:00The Port of Spain City Corporation is urging the public to come out in their
00:04numbers and to take part in the carnival festivities but you're going to have to
00:09be careful where you park. Already resumed so that there was wrecking
00:13ongoing in support of the panorama semifinals activity that happened on
00:18Sunday. Our focus as it pertains to towing vehicles is because that are
00:25illegally parked and in particular for carnival there are emergency routes that
00:31have to be maintained for emergency vehicles, ambulances and what have you
00:34and so for carnival Monday and Tuesday in particular that would be the focus
00:40ensuring that those routes remain safe and clear so that we can respond to any
00:46issues which may arise. At this time the corporation has only one wreck operating
00:51with another one expected to come into service by next week. On the security
00:56front the mayor is promising a full turnout in the coming days. There are
01:01many stakeholders that have a responsibility for safety and we are all
01:04committed to ensuring that the carnival is a safe one. On our establishment we
01:08have 200 police officers we have maybe about 160 that are in office and all
01:14officers are recalled for carnival as happens all the time. The city, city
01:20police service has specific responsibility for downtown carnival and
01:24so when you come to the South Quay stage as I've invited all of you to attend
01:28when you come to the South Quay stage you the officers that you see there
01:31primarily will be city police. Among the many festivities downtown Port of Spain
01:36this year is the second edition of the city's pan competition Panamania. It's a
01:42winner-takes-all competition so that all of the bands steel bands that are on the
01:47move they come through the downtown carnival stage they perform and it's
01:51winner-takes-all there's only one prize and so we launched it last year it was
01:55quite successful and so we want to continue it and continue to do whatever
01:59we can to support the culture in any way so we have the kiddies carnival we have
02:05the old mass competition we have our juve morning competition we have a pan
02:10competition as well. The prize last year was $30,000 winner-takes-all
02:17the it will be at least that amount but it may be increased. The mayor's giving
02:23the assurance that the passage of the bands will not pose any logistical
02:26challenge. We're ready for the carnival there's been a lot of planning a lot of
02:31work our public health inspectorate is ready our city police is ready all of
02:36our engineering department all the different departments that have a
02:39responsibility we're ready for the festival we're ready to welcome people
02:43into the city of Portisbou. Vanessa Cutting TV6 News
Comments