City Hall to re-engage citizens on parking meter project

May 25, 2017 News

The Georgetown Mayor and City Council will be re-engaging the citizens of Georgetown to discuss the issue of paid parking within the City.

According to information outlined during a statutory meeting held at City Hall on Monday, the Parking Meter Negotiating Committee of the Mayor and Councillors of the City (M&CC) of Georgetown are hosting a series of public consultations with stakeholders from Tuesday, May 23 to today.

The consultations are being held in the Council Chambers at City Hall from 14:00 hours to 19:00 hours daily.

The main objective is to listen to concerns and suggestions for the implementation of Parking Meters within the City of Georgetown. Among the groups targeted during the consultations are members of the Private Sector Commission, members of the Movement Against Parking Meters (MAPM), the Georgetown Chambers of Commerce and industry, taxi and minibus driver/owners, owners of vehicles used for commercial purposes and private residents within and outside the Parking Meter Zone.

Some of them have already been involved in the consultation. The Movement Against Parking Meters says the project should be scrapped.

Earlier this year, Minister of Communities Ronald Bulkan, recommended a three-month suspension of the parking meter project. His decision followed massive protests by members of civil society who formed a movement against the project which is implemented by a Mexico based company Smart City Solutions,(SCS) they viewed as an imposition on the citizens of Georgetown. Several protests were organised in-front of City Hall by the group, MAPM.

The MAPM had issued a public call to revoke the contract and the bylaws in their current forms.

While the group is not against a structured system for traffic regulation within the city, inclusive of measures to facilitate the orderly parking of vehicles while simultaneously raising revenue, it stands firm that the project is an imposition on the Guyanese people and did not benefit from a feasibility and social impact study, and has breached Guyana’s procurement regulations.

In addition, the group believes that the bylaws which were signed into being by Minister Bulkan, are oppressive and infringes on the constitutional rights of every Guyanese. “For these reasons, the MAPM will continue to reject this project in its entirety and will not accept any action less than a full revocation of the contract and bylaws,” the group had said.

One of the issues which the group has had with the project is the enforcement activity by employees of the company, whereby motorists’ vehicles are being clamped for failing to pay for parking, and parking in an unmetered parking space with a metered zone.

Former Deputy Mayor Sherod Duncan welcomed the intervention by Government. Duncan said, “At the end of the day, (the municipality) only wants what is best for all the citizens.”
“If it is the government’s view that more can be done on the matter, then as a local government entity working with central government in the best interest of all the citizens, we will re-look at what we’ve done so far and hopefully at the end of the day come out with what is in the best interest of all.”

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