By Carlena Knight
The Grays Green community in the near future could finally regain control of the newly refurbished sports complex.
This is according to the Minister of Health, Wellness and the Environment, Molwyn Joseph, who was on the Good Morning JoJo Sports show last Friday and spoke briefly on the issue.
“Well that’s only temporary. There has to be a fix to that shortly and I am hoping that this very year we can get the magistrate’s court issue straightened out and release that [the sports complex] to the young people.”
Joseph, who is also an avid sports fan having played cricket for several teams growing up, expounded on the importance of having a facility like this one in the community.
“It is the most important thing when it comes to social development. You see all these conflicts we have with young people? It is because they are not engaged in enough activities where they can learn conflict resolution. When I used to play cricket, I used to have problems and disagreements with some of my colleagues, but guess that when the day of the match comes, we all have to get along to win because we all wanted to win. [Sports] have a lot of redeeming social benefits that are overlooked and I pray to God that we get back to the values, the early values that helped build character.”
The St. John’s Magistrate’s court, since early last year was temporarily moved to the “Knuckleblock” Community Center and Sporting Complex due to poor working conditions at the court’s former location on the corner of High and Temple street.
This move was met with public outrage by sporting officials and villagers mainly from the Grays Green area. Those comments were rebutted by the minister responsible for the court, Steadroy ‘Cutie’ Benjamin, who referred to the complaints as “unjustified” and “unwarranted” as the temporary movement of the court would bring law and order to the area.