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City Hall targets Norton Street scrap metal dealer
Little tolerance will be shown to scrap metal dealers who have been obstructing the city’s parapets and drainage systems. This disclosure was made recently by Deputy City Engineer, Lloyd Alleyne, and was demonstrated last Friday when city workers descended on the premises of a scrap metal dealer on Norton Street, Georgetown.
And no small amount of scrap metal was removed from the location and deposited at the municipality Princes Street Stone Depot.
The seized materials which were removed from the parapet at the junction of John and Norton Streets, Newburg, are owned by Maurice Primo.
During an interview with this newspaper, Primo said that he has been in the scrap metal business for more than two years but noted that it was only two weeks ago that he dared to store all of his merchandise outside his Norton Street domicile.
Although some of the scrap metals have been removed some seemed to have seeped into this manhole
While acknowledging that his action posed a threat to the environment and the public at large, the man explained that he was forced to take such action as his previous storage location at Land of Canaan, East Bank Demerara, was recently vandalised.
“I agree that scrap iron can produce a lot of dust and it was blocking up the place but I was scared to carry back the stuff to Land of Canaan…”
But according to the man, he had attempted to relocate his merchandise to another plot of land located opposite his home but was prevented from doing so thus they have remained on the parapet for about two weeks now.
He revealed that he started to construct a bridge leading to the property but was stopped in his track as he was not in possession of an approval from the municipality. “Certain things were not in place that is the truth…But as soon as I get the permission I will be moving my stuff over. As it is the ball is in City Hall’s court. There is nothing else that I can do right now,” Primo insisted.
He related that he is waiting patiently for the time when he will be able to properly store his remaining merchandise and retrieve others from the municipal Depot.
In a massive drive to rid the city streets and parapets of derelict vehicles and unsightly placed materials, the municipality had early yesterday descended on John Street removing two forklifts and a trailer that were parked in the vicinity of the Georgetown Prisons.
The two forklifts are said to be owned by a businessman who lives in the same street, while the trailer is believed to be the property of the Georgetown Prison Service, according to the Deputy City Engineer. With the aid of a hymac, the items were placed on a tractor trailer and were transported to the municipal Stone Depot at Princes Street.
“We have to clear this area by the prisons…Persons have been written to move these things but they are not complying so we are moving them ourselves,” Alleyne had noted. According to him, the municipality will not allow the callous activity to continue unabated in the city.
And in order for the seized items to be retrieved by their respective owners, Alleyne revealed that a fee will have to be paid to the municipality. The fee he said usually amounts to the equivalent of the cost incurred to remove the items from the parapet or could be based on the discretion of the City Engineer.
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