Many of the residents of St Ann's East say unemployment and lack of development of facilities are their major concerns.

But when the Sunday Express caught up with them last week, some residents also said they had hardly seen their MP Joanne Thomas.

Hers is a constituency that covers parts of San Juan, Santa Cruz, Maracas, St Joseph and Las Cuevas.

Gullin Sookhai, a parlour owner at Moreau Road, did not even know who her MP was.

"You does hardly see them (MPs) only before and at election time," she said. "I just remember waving at her during a motorcade for the election but I have not seen her since."

Sookhai said her son's house at La Canoa was under threat of collapsing because whenever it rained, water rushed underneath on the way to the river, corroding the base of the structure more and more with every shower.

She said his efforts, including a visit to the constituency office, to get assistance for the deteriorating situation, went unattended.

Robert Girod, a self professed PNM supporter who lives on Upper Branch Street and who said he campaigned for Thomas during the last general election, said he sees Congress of the People (COP) councillor for the area Roger "Zoff" Celestine much more than Thomas.

"I last saw her (Thomas) for the election. Everybody know this area here is strong PNM but we support Celestine because he is at least visible and trying to do stuff for us," he said, adding that unemployment was a major issue in the area.

"Luckily, Zoff organises tournaments like football, cricket and all fours so that the youth at least have something to occupy their time and stay away from crime. But I haven't seen Ms Thomas so long that I can't remember what she looks like."

Peter Britto, who was liming at Mellow Moon bar, echoed Girod's sentiment, saying that the councillor was very helpful but he hardly knew Thomas.

Patricia Vincent of Apparicio Road, Janis Munroe and Patrick Carter of Grande Curacaye Road all said they agreed with Britto's statement.

When the Sunday Express spoke to Celestine, he said the development and upgrading of the sporting facilities in Santa Cruz, including the Brian Lara Recreational Ground, was paramount.

He said: "I am appealing to the Minister of Sport Anil Roberts to assist in the preparation and completion of works at those grounds so that we can continue to uplift the community of Santa Cruz."

Celestine, a member of the TYROS Sports Club for over 20 years, also said the fact that many of the Community-based Environmental Protection and Enhancement

Programme (CEPEP) projects had been removed from the area and suggested that Government needed to help out to ensure that the area regains some of these.

Celestine said he wanted to work closely with Thomas to achieve more representation and results for the community. At Akal Trace, Ken Sorzano and Brandon Charles said the authorities were taking too long to upgrade the Brian Lara Recreation Ground.

"It's been five to six years they promising to fix the ground and all we know is millions of dollars spent and one set of steel poles get erected around the ground," Charles said, "But they haven't replaced the pavilion yet."

Sorzano recalled the Women's FIFA U-17 World Cup where visiting teams who used the ground as a training facility had to use the adjacent Panjammers compound to change because of a lack of change-room facilities.

"That was a big embarrassment," he said, adding that the ground is currently used every weekend for football league competitions.

"If it wasn't for these competitions, these youth men would easily go and look for it in crime," he said, adding that unemployment and bad roads were another issue in the area.