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Jul 23, 2016 Letters
Dear Editor;
The residents of Queenstown who own and live in their properties East of Oronoque Street, Queenstown, Georgetown, await anxiously and welcome the decision of the City Councillors to set up a National Capital Planning Commission to guide the development of the city (SN July 8, 2016). It has come not a day too early, in fact the City Council and its relevant departments have given the “Nelson eye,” to the egregious violations which have taken place in recent times.
There have been past, present and very recent examples of the total disregard for the Georgetown building by-laws aided and abetted by supervisory government authorities like the Mayor and City Council, the City Engineer and the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA).It is noted that the decision to set up the Commission was influenced by and “in keeping with President Granger’s vision.” “The objective of the Commission would be to create policies that would chart urban renewal in the city.” Whatever the Terms of Reference of the Commission will be, they must first direct their attention to clearing the stench from “The Augean Stables” in areas like Queenstown, Georgetown where there are brazen violations of the Laws of Guyana, compendiously to be found in the Constitution, the Municipal and District Councils Act and the Georgetown Building by-laws, the City Government by-laws.
The Georgetown Building by-laws prohibit any building on any lot east of Oronoque Street, Queenstown from being used for “manufacturing trade or business”.
By-Law 67 provides:
“67. (1) By-laws 68 to 70 inclusive shall in addition to the other by-laws herein, apply to that part of the City east of Oronoque Street.
(2) No by-law herein repugnant to by-laws 68 to 70 inclusive shall have any application in that part of the City.”
By-law 70 provides:
“No building to be used as a spirit shop or provision shop or for any manufacturing, trade or business purpose shall be erected or built on any lot, and no such building shall be used for any such purpose aforesaid.”
The intention of the framers of the by-laws is clear. It is fundamental that every person to whom an Act of Parliament applies is under a legal duty to obey it. There is a list of the prevailing violations in the residential area regulated by the Georgetown Building by-laws and known to the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) and the City Engineer.
Rex McKay
Attorney-at-Law
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