This island’s Minister of Sports, Stephen Lashley, is pleading with Barbadians to take care of the sporting facilities across the island.

Mr. Lashley lamented that a few pavilions had been vandalised. "That [action] is to be abhorred and I urge Barbadians to care for the facilities in their communities because we cannot post security guards and police officers at all pavilions across Barbados.

"It is really for the community to take charge and protect these very expensive buildings. They take a lot of money to build and maintain and I want to encourage communities to take care of the facilities, so as to ensure they last as long as possible," he stated.

A few weeks ago, Director of the National Sports Council (NSC), Erskine King, complained that some motorists and motor cyclists were indiscriminately using a few of their playing fields. "Some use the field to do all sorts of tricks with their vehicles and this destroys the grass… We even have one or two fields people use to race horses," he reported.

Mr. King called on citizens to see playing fields as part of their community and to "keep an eye out for any unusual activity" and give the Sports Council or the police the information, including the registration numbers of the vehicles, so action could be taken.

Meanwhile, Minister Lashley said most of the sporting facilities across the island were heavily used by the communities. He expressed the view, however, that more organised community sports were required and disclosed that the NSC was already moving in that direction.

??"The National Sports Council is in the process of planning a policy initiative designed to re-ignite a sense of togetherness and purpose in the community and once that is started, other programmes will follow in the future," he pointed out.?? saustin@barbados.gov.bb

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