AS the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into City Hall continued on Friday, the commission heard testimony from Damian Fernandes, claiming that Mae’s Private School allegedly removed two basketball hoops and a portion of the perimeter fence from the Farnum Community Ground, after being told to halt works being carried out to section off the ground.

Fernandes is one of a collection of Subryanville residents who, for the past two years, have been contesting against Mae’s Private School being given permission to take over a section of the Farnum Community Ground.

According to Fernandes, the residents are still calling to see a copy of the lease or agreement issued by the Mayor and City Council (MCC) to owner of the school Mayfield Rodrigues, giving her permission to section off one third of the ground.

According to Fernandes, they are also calling for the school to remove the builders’ waste that it has been dumping at the ground; remove the internal fence that Mae’s has since ceased construction on; to restore the portion of fence torn down; and for MCC to sign a Memorandum of Agreement for the community to take over management and maintenance of the ground.

Equipped with a PowerPoint presentation, Fernandes informed the commission that the situation with Mae’s School trying to assert control over the ground dated all the way back to 2010, when the school wrote then Mayor Hamilton Green requesting “control” over Farnum Community ground and “permission to divert traffic onto the field and park”. The letter claimed to be “in conjunction with Subryanville Community Organisation”, however, Fernandes refuted that the community was in agreement.

Another resident, Colonel Carl Morgan, on behalf of Subryanville Development, also wrote Green indicating that there was no agreement between the school and any community group.

Then it was in January 2017 that the school first began constructing a fence across the width of the ground sectioning off approximately one third of the ground.

Some 34 residents signed a letter to the school expressing concern that the fence would result in the restriction of access to the ground, since Mae’s had previously padlocked gates at the ground, and asking to meet.

The Mayor, Patricia Chase-Green, Town Clerk, Royston King and Ministry of Education Permanent Secretary were all also sent copies of the letter.

While the school never responded, the MCC subsequently demolished the fence.
Following that, the residents continued to upgrade the ground and invested some $2.5 million to level the ground, to which Mae’s school donated $100,000
However, in January 2018, construction again began on an internal fence. According to Fernandes, Rodrigues claimed “that the Town Clerk’s office had issued a lease to the School for that section of the Ground. They indicate that the lease allows them to build a fence”.

The residents contacted their constituency representatives Carlyle Goring and Linda Gomes-Haley, both of whom claimed no knowledge of the undertaking. Then Deputy Mayor Lionel Jaikarran also claimed no knowledge of the project.

The issue was discussed at a subsequent MCC statutory meeting, whereby King established that while he did have a written agreement with Rodrigues it was not a lease.
The councillors called for works on the internal fence to cease and this was eventually done.

It was shortly after this, Fernandes informed, that the basketball rings and sections of a long-existing fence around the perimeter of Farnum Community Ground, both of which were erected by the school, had been torn down.

The tearing down of the basketball rings, and the dumping of builders’ waste have left dangerous metal rods, zinc sheets and wood with nails in them littered across the ground, posing a danger to persons who still use the ground, many of them school- children.
With grass growing and covering the dangerous implements, Fernandes believes the ground is an accident waiting to happen.

It is the hope of the residents that following the CoI something can be done about the situation.