Cabinet to deliberate on parking meters at next meeting - Bulkan

Cabinet to deliberate on parking meters at next meeting – Bulkan

Jun 07, 2018 News

City Hall officials are to appear before Cabinet to lobby for the return of controversial paid parking in Georgetown.
According to Minister of Communities, Ronald Bulkan, the revised contract and bylaws will be discussed at Cabinet’s next sitting, following which Central Government will make a decision and a determination.
City Hall’s first attempt to implement paid parking in the city was met with resistance from residents. Smart City Solutions (SCS) was single-sourced to provide the service, but the company was set to gain the hog of the profits.
Government then stopped the project by rescinding the bylaws.

The parking meter infrastructure remains in the city

“The benefits have to be equitably shared between the concessionaire and the Council. A lot of those features were not present in the initial contract and this is why the bylaws had to be rescinded. It is our hope that the amended contract satisfies the concerns expressed by the Ministry of Finance and by the Attorney General Chambers,” Bulkan stated.
The Minister said that he is on record as welcoming an initiative that helps to restore
order to the chaos of city streets.
“At the end of the day, however, the contract that is engaged in has to be one that is not burdensome to the population,” the Minister noted.
Last year, amid widespread public outcry, including weekly street protests by civil society and groups, central government had suspended the parking meter bylaws.
As a result, a matter was filed in Court challenging the legality of the bylaws. Justice Nareshwar Harnanan subsequently ruled that the approval was not done in compliance with provisions of the Municipal and District Councils Act, Chapter 28:01.
Justice Harnanan had presided over a challenge by the New Building Society Limited (NBS) mounted against the city’s metered parking bylaws, which it contended was illegal.
The Court had previously ordered that a rule nisi certiorari be issued to the Minister of Communities to show cause as to why a writ of certiorari should not be issued to quash his approval of the parking meter by-laws.
City Councillors subsequently approved a revised bylaw.
Thirteen Councillors voted in support of the project, two voted against and two persons abstained during an Extraordinary Statutory Meeting held at City Hall in April.
In opposing the passage of the bylaws of the contentious project, Councillor Malcolm Ferreira warned the Council of the impending decision of the High Court with regard to the legality of the contract between City Hall and SCS.

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