City businesses to now pay $25,000 container fee

Jul 13, 2016 News

Mayor Patricia Chase-Green

M&CC will be charging a $25,000 fee for containers parked in the city, a statement said yesterday.

The Mayor and City Council (M&CC) on Monday took a unanimous decision to implement a $25,000 fee for the operation of storage containers within the city.
The fee’s implementation was officially adapted by the Full Council when they held their Statutory Meeting at City Hall, according to a statement from the entity.
City businesses have been rejecting attempts to collect fees with the new council finding it difficult to enforce.
“The Mayor and City Councilors recognized that previously, business persons and other contain operators have been accessing city streets, and other public spaces with those storage containers free of cost. However, the containers are sometimes left parked in public spaces for long periods. They take up much space in especially active locations, and in some cases add to the congestion situation.”
M&CC said that containers – loaded or not – contribute immensely to the destruction of city roads. “In some cases they have broken or bent bridge railings and broken off road shoulders, leaving the city to bear the expense. While container users will pay $25,000 to have the storage device parked for 72 hours, Council’s decision also supports a penalty fee of $5000 for every other day the container is left parked in the public space.”
The idea, according to Mayor Patricia Chase-Green, is to ensure that containers are not left parked around the city if not being used.
She explained that the Council was in receipt of complaints by persons who were being affected by the wanton parking of containers in the city.
“The City continues to receive complaints about container trucks also using inner city streets and some residential locations during their routes.”
According to M&CC, the Council is powered under the Municipal and District Councils Act Chapter 28:01, to implement such fee and “not a tax” in its bid to manage the operations of containers within the city.
“The regularization of container movement in the city is part of a wider traffic regulation operation being undertaken by the Municipality. The Council had previously published, under Chapter 28:01 the streets to be used by container trucks. The law says that such vehicles were not permitted in certain areas without the permission of the city.”
Town Clerk Royston King said that other measures are being implemented to ensure the safe and orderly movement of containers, such as monitoring agents to be stationed at wharf and other ports of entry within the capital.
The new council has announced sweeping measures to reclaim the city and collecting hundreds of millions in outstanding taxes.

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