Spanking new tennis facility at Holder’s Hill

The newly renovated EZ Pave tennis court facility at the Desmond Haynes Sports Complex was re-opened to the community of Holder’s Hill and the constituents of St. James on Saturday. 

The Minister of Family, Culture, Sports and Youth Stephen Lashley along with parliamentary representative of St. James South Donville Inniss deemed the Insurance Corporation of Barbados Limited (ICBL) sponsored facility ready for use while speaking at the opening ceremony for the tennis court.

 

Inniss spoke to the specially invited guests, community members and the media about the passion he had for the constituents of St. James South as their representative. He stated that he felt their needs and concerns were of the utmost importance to him and he was passionate about giving back to the community. Inniss stated that facilities such as the one just re-opened were instrumental in having a positive impact on the communities of Barbados. He conveyed his thanks to ICBL for their service and commitment to the Holder’s Hill Community and the Parish of St. James in the refurbishment of the tennis court facility. Inniss was proud of the partnership between ICBL and the government through the National Sports Council (NSC). The parliamentary representative lauded the outstanding level of professionalism which ICBL represented as a corporate citizen of Barbados.

 

Inniss also spoke of the focus of the government to join with the international community in promoting a healthy lifestyle by building stronger bodies and healthier minds. Ingrid Innes, Chief Executive Officer of ICBL stated that the project of refurbishing the facility was particularly appealing to ICBL due to the nature of the business which the corporation was in. She reiterated the fact that ICBL promoted a healthy and active lifestyle to its staff, partners and customers to encourage long and healthy lives. Innes then thanked EZ Pave Inc. for their hard work and expressed her pleasure in seeing the finished product after the planning and work done.

 

Minister Lashley did the feature address and reinforced the points mentioned by both Inniss and Innes. His concern was to the many other facilities which had also fallen into disrepair over time. According to Lashley, a maintenance plan by the NSC had been put into effect by his ministry in order to manage the general care of them or repair. He drew reference to the statistics which stated that Barbados was one of the leading countries internationally with the most sports facilities in the world per square mile.

 

Lashley applauded the effort of Inniss for making sure that what was promised was brought to fruition and made a call to all MP’s to follow his example and join with the NSC and the Private Sector and forge meaningful partnerships to maintain facilities in their scope of responsibility. He made sure to highlight that this project of refurbishing one of the few public tennis courts left, could not have been a success without government and private sector partnerships such as the NSC and ICBL.

 

Lashley commended Desmond Haynes for his stellar service to Barbados and the Holder’s Hill community. He wanted the public to see that despite the cries of negativity by some, these moments showed that there are indeed positive movements going on in Barbados which play a part in the advancement and development of Barbados.