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Mystery Lamaha Gardens works ordered halted after residents protest
The disputed beautification works at Lamaha Gardens. At left is the Lama Canal.
Residents of a section of Lamaha Gardens yesterday protested beautification works on an adjacent reserve, claiming that the activities are illegal and they were not consulted.
As a result, City Mayor Hamilton Green ordered the contractor to cease works, saying he (Green) wanted more clarity on the situation.
According to pensioner, Roy Mc Arthur, who lives on Komoa Street, which runs parallel to the reserve, works started late last week, and it was first thought that it was part of the cleaning-up activities of the Government.
However, workers and the heavy equipment on site started dumping sand and erecting posts.
A former executive of the Guyana State Corporation (GUYSTAC), a government holding company, Mc Arthur explained that the land in the area was given to residents since in the 1950s, and through self-help, they built roads. It took over a decade before residents started moving in.
The land was placed under the control of the residents in a body called the ‘Civil Service Coop Housing Association’.
“This reserve borders on the Lama Canal which the city uses for its water supply. The vegetation protects persons from interfering with the canal and the water supply. So when we saw the works, and knowing we were not consulted, we had questions.”
Lamaha Gardens is home to a number of prominent citizens including accountant, Ronald Alli, and Alfred Mentore, a sports executive. Both were highly critical.
Alli is a member of the Board of Directors of the Central Housing and Planning Authority.
He was on the scene yesterday and objected to the works. He said that City Council, the Ministry of Public Infrastructure and CH&PA, were not aware of the works.
It was the same thing with Mentore. He is a candidate for the City Council for the area in today’s first Local Government Elections in over two decades.
“A project of this nature will need the full blessing of a new council. It is too big and there are questions, and there seems to be a mad rush to finish it. It does not add up.”
Mentore believes that the City Council should be more concerned about issues like drainage and other priorities.
“As a resident I was not informed of the works. A situation like this should not take place.”
Yesterday, a private contractor of a company called H&S Import and Export, said he was asked by City Council to do the works. He is doing it “voluntarily” and donating his workers and the equipment.
He claimed Royston King, the Town Clerk, knows about the work and was the person who the newspaper should speak with.
The proposed works included clearing the vegetation and building a walkway and recreation area. It appeared that fences would have been erected with several truckloads of sand dumped already.
Mayor Green explained via phone yesterday that he was on the site earlier in the day, and based on what he was told by residents and with the need to garner more information, he asked the foreman on site to cease works.
Apparently, the contractor had no written documents giving him permission.
Several calls were made to the mobile phone of the Town clerk, but these went unanswered.
Messages were also left at his office at the City Hall, but there were no calls as of late last evening.
With criticisms in the past of certain state and other contracts, there have been growing calls for more transparency and accountability.
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