City Prevents Construction of 8-storey Mall

Oct 07, 2018 News

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The Mayor and City Council has prevented the construction of an eight-storey mall complex on the Water Street property, popularly known as ‘Zinc Bond’, despite approving the building plan for the project 13 years ago.
This is according to businessman, Malcolm Panday, who testified at the Commission of Inquiry into the Affairs of the Mayor and City Council, on Friday, October 5, last.
In his statement, Panday told Justice Kennard that the Central Housing and Planning Authority and the Mayor and City Council both approved the building plan for the erection of a modern, eight-storey shopping mall since early 2005.
However, they repeatedly refused to give him permission to cordon off the area along the property’s perimeter for the commencement of works, the businessman said.
Panday provided a copy of a letter dated June 20, 2005, in which he wrote to Beverley Johnson, the Acting City Engineer at the time, concerning the presence of vendors on the pavements surrounding the property.
The letter states, “Because of the proximity of the vendors on the four sides of our land plot coverage, we cannot proceed. We need at least ten feet working area on the sides of the land, which would entail moving the vendors from around the boundaries.”

Further, his statement read that this requirement is also for “the protection of pedestrians traversing in the vicinity of this area.” This permission, he said, was not granted.
Panday stressed that he doesn’t wish for the vendors to be treated unfairly, and provided a copy of a second letter dated March 1, 2007, in which he wrote to Robert Williams, the Deputy Mayor at the time, about the relocation of vendors from around the property.
This letter suggested a destination for the temporary relocation of the vendors. It reads: “While letters to the City Council on my plight remain unanswered, I wish to encourage and facilitate the movement of these vendors by offering the Zinc Bond, complete with the metal frame, etc., on a pay later plan to be agreed upon.
“This Bond may be relocated to the ‘Toolsie Persaud Arcade’ to accommodate the vendors to be removed from around the pavements and also the streets around my site.”
Panday told Justice Kennard that he is a friend to many vendors, and is deeply sympathetic to their plight. He said that he had granted verbal approval to about 30 vendors who did not have spots on the pavement, to occupy the premises of his property since 2005, rent-free, while he awaited the removal of those vendors around his property.

He stated that the vendors he has shown kindness to have amassed wealth and property from the business they’ve conducted on his property. He further stated that when those vendors were being removed in 2009, he issued documents for them to use in court, including a copy of his transport, as proof that he had granted permission for them to utilise his private property until 2012.
Panday said that the vendors’ occupation of his property surpassed the 2012 deadline that he had granted them, despite his requests for them to leave. He referred to an article by Stabroek News, dated May 8, 2016, titled ‘Vendors seeking more time for removal from former GSL bond’. The article states that Peter Warner, amongst several other vendors, told Stabroek News that “they were given permission since 2009 from businessman Malcolm Panday to use the area to ply their trade.”
Panday further stated that, even though his lawyers have advised him to take the Mayor and City Council to court to remove the vendors and to commence construction with them as they are, he resisted out of care for their safety and property.
He said that those vendors have stayed on his property for 13 years, amassing wealth, without having to pay rent, rates or taxes. The vendors, he explained, would be able to rent spaces in the mall after its construction.
The City Council, in 2016, had begun relocating the vendors from the pavement. Panday told Justice Kennard that though he was relieved by this, the vendors returned to the pavements shortly after, thwarting his construction plans.
The businessman implored the chairman, telling him that the almost $2 billion mall would beautify and transform the area, which he said will cause the city to benefit from considerable rates and taxes.
The Commission of Inquiry into the affairs of the Mayor and City Council is headed by the Local Government Commission. Its purpose is to examine, advise and report on irregularities of the administration, its operations, and the managements of its financial affairs.
The Chairman appointed to lead these proceedings is Retired Chancellor of the Judiciary, Justice Cecil Kennard.

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