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CH&PA and the City Engineer and you know what?

Feb 07, 2019 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

A friend complained to me that he was getting the grand runaround by Mr. Venture, the City Engineer. No one can give me a lecture about the City Engineer’s office, going back decades and decades. Then I built my own home. Not before I had to run several times to see the then City Engineer, who later down the years was fired and also his two successors.
More often than not, you cannot build a home without either confronting the City Engineer or begging him, meaning the holder of the office – whether it is Mr. Jones or Mr. Sones or Mr. Bones…You cannot submit a land use plan to Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) without confronting that office or begging its top administrators.
There may be exceptions, but the trend as I know it, as long as I have lived in my country, is that the City Engineer and CH&PA take a very long time to approve your plan. Even the rich and famous like the Beharry Group of Companies publicly stated in the media that it was experiencing excessive delays in its plan to house Pizza Hut on the lower flat of its insurance business, NALICO.
So I went to see Venture. He was upset that I came. He said; “Why your friend sent you? I don’t like this! I spoke to him. Why he sent you? I want to see him. Ring him and tell him to come right away to see me.” I did that. Venture was lecturing to my friend like a headmaster when I intervened and told Venture, he is my friend and after the treatment he got, he sought out the assistance of the media.
The trouble centered around my friend being stopped from laying his foundation after not hearing from Venture. Venture said you cannot lay foundation without permission by his office. Point taken! Then my friend told Venture he can point to three buildings going up without permission. Venture exclaimed, “Name them to me right now!” I intercepted and told my friend not to do so. Then I pointed out to Venture the name of the man building without permission and the address.
This was Venture’s reaction. “I didn’t know that. I don’t drive by that area.” Since I told Venture that, construction went on and the building has been completed. I was asked by Sherwin Benjamin, the lawyer for the Local Government Commission of Inquiry, to testify. I did not. I am literally fed up with this country and its nonsense.
My auto-electrician’s land use plan to CH&PA was turned down. Every citizen in this country will not believe the reason for rejection. I am not going to get myself and this paper into legal trouble. I will just state the facts and hope honest, decent humans in Guyana will investigate too, and make their findings public. Here is the story of sad Guyana.
David, Pike, Gordon, Thomas and Barr Streets are located in Kitty. Those five streets are bordered on the east by Alexander Street and the west by the street that Roger Luncheon made famous because he was powerful and lived on that street before moving to Pradoville 2. It is Stanley Place.
My friend’s rejection letter noted that the area is a housing vicinity and businesses are not permitted. I counted over two hundred small, medium sized and huge business places in that area. Now don’t take my word for it. Please drive your car and circle the area. All the streets named above have small, medium type and large business entities. It has to be one of the most bizarre explanations offered to a citizen since this country was born.
Telling a citizen he cannot open a business unit there is like telling a businessman that Regent Street is a housing area and retail trade is not allowed. It is like telling an investor that Sheriff Street is a housing area and you cannot open a supermarket there. Sheriff Street has five supermarkets plus Pizza Hut, plus Royal Castle, plus a large restaurant owned by an investor from India, plus Guyoil gas station, plus three reconditioned car businesses. I could go on.
So why was this man turned down. Well he is a small guy, very small. Do small people have the capacity to confront? Let me stay away from legal trouble. I will write the Minister of Housing. Ms. Patterson has jurisdiction over CH&PA. I will write the Minister of Communities who has overall jurisdiction. I will ask them how that explanation can stand. I will also write God and ask him to help powerless people in Guyana.

 

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