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By Neto Baptiste
An enormous amount of work will need to be done at the Police Recreation Grounds (PRG) to bring the facility back to its former glory where teams and patrons alike would be able to enjoy all the grounds has to offer.
This is according to Minister for Education, Sport and Creative Industries, Hon. Daryll Matthew, who said a fair amount of engineering would have to be done to ensure the water woes that currently impact the facility are completely remedied and not just passed on to the next person.
“For Police Grounds to get back to a place where it can be used in a particular way for sporting activities and other activities, it requires a lot of engineering work to ensure that you’re not kicking the can down the road to somebody else, and it’s obviously going to require a lot of backfilling. The engineering work I’m referring to may require the construction of proper drains outside police grounds between the other construction or development that has taken place, so that the water that accumulates there can have somewhere else to go. Because backfilling by itself is not a solution; it just kicks the problem to somebody else,” he said.
The facility, used as a training venue during the 2022 ICC Men’s Under-19 World Cup, reportedly began deteriorating shortly afterwards with the reconstruction of the Sir Sydney Walling Highway and the construction of nearby buildings which forced huge amounts of water to settle on the northern end of the field.
The new developments reportedly encroached on the already established waterways, which resulted in constant flooding of the venue, operated by the Antigua and Barbuda Royal Police Force.
“It has always had a drainage problem, but over the last six or seven years or so, it has become really complex because of all the construction that has taken place, or the backfilling and construction that has taken place in that general vicinity. So now, Police Grounds sits almost like a pond; it’s always wet. And again, it has always been a waterlogged facility, ever since I can remember. But over the last couple of years, it is worse and to really fix Police Grounds – to bring it back to a place where football, or any other sport for that matter, can be played – is going to require a lot of engineering and tremendous backfilling in almost the entire facility,” Matthew said.
In February of 2024, the then Commissioner of Police Atlee Rodney, labelled the situation at the PRG a “big environmental problem,” adding that he had approached the relevant authorities, including the Ministry of Works and the environmental department for assistance.
The PRG was once the home of Premier Division football with matches being staged at the venue in mid to late ‘90s. The venue has also staged matches in the cricket association league along with numerous social and carnival events.
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