City Mayor allows organising committee to put up World Cup banners

Monetgo Bay, Mar 10 (UNI) Under tremendous pressure from the media and cricket fans, the Mayor of Falmouth has agreed to allow the World Cup organisers to set up banners announcing CWC 2007 on the route from Falmouth to Trelawny.

Earlier the Mayor had asked the organisers for payment to be made to the city authorties if they wanted to put up the banners.

Mayor Jonathan Bartley was quoted in the media as having said, ''I spoke to someone from the LOC (Local Organising Committee) this morning and I told them that we will grant them the waiver.'' As a result, the banners that the organisers had said they could not post without the fee waiver, will go up ahead of Sunday's opening ceremony at the Trelawny Multipurpose Stadium. ''We will be dressing up the town with 100 street banners from the entrance leading into the stadium,'' a local organising committee official said.

The stadium itself is a grand structure, erected over 60 acres of ''virgin'' land, work on which began in late November, 2005. The structure seats about 15,000 in all and looks out over a panorama - the sea in one direction and the historic town of Falmouth on the other.

In all, it cost in the region of 32 million dollars (US) and was financed as a long-term loan by China as part of its diplomatic initiative in the Caribbean.

UNI