Diego residents fear funding cut will worsen flooding, neglect

Res­i­dents across Diego Mar­tin say a sharp re­duc­tion in fund­ing to the bor­ough cor­po­ra­tion could wors­en long-stand­ing prob­lems, in­clud­ing flood­ing, blocked drains, over­grown lots and de­te­ri­o­rat­ing in­fra­struc­ture. Some al­so ac­cused the Gov­ern­ment of po­lit­i­cal­ly dis­ad­van­tag­ing the area.

De­vel­op­ment fund­ing for all sev­en Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM)-con­trolled mu­nic­i­pal cor­po­ra­tions was re­duced in the 2027 Bud­get. Their com­bined al­lo­ca­tion fell by $49.55 mil­lion, or 61 per cent, com­pared with the orig­i­nal pro­vi­sions for fis­cal 2026. Diego Mar­tin faced the steep­est per­cent­age cut, with its al­lo­ca­tion falling from $11.1 mil­lion to $2.22 mil­lion—an 80 per cent de­crease.

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At Hillaire Street, East­lyn Far­rell, who said she had lived in Diego Mar­tin for 35 years, ques­tioned how the cor­po­ra­tion could main­tain roads and drains with such lim­it­ed re­sources.