Abandon the idea of the fire station at D’Urban Park!

Dec 04, 2021 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

Kaieteur News – The proposed construction of a fire station at D’Urban Park should be abandoned. The area should be retained as a green zone within the city.
Green spaces are considered as open areas where there are trees and vegetation set aside for recreational use or for the aesthetic purposes they provide. Among the few green spaces which exist in the capital city are the Botanical Gardens and National Park and small area opposite the National Assembly which was developed by now President, Irfaan Ali.
Green spaces are disappearing from Georgetown. Even the green parapets are being asphalted over and those which survive this entombment are being degraded by the parking of vehicles and vending. Squatters are encroaching on government reserves. There are few green spaces remaining in the city.
D’Urban Park is among those few green spaces which remain. It should be preserved as a green space and a historic sporting and recreational space.
It was considered the home of horse racing in Guyana during the 1940’s. It was acquired from the Demerara Turf Club in 1971 as part of Burnham’s great socialist experiment.
When Forbes Burnham began his assault on the propertied class in Guyana, he decided that the symbol of their prestige, the race course at D’Urban Park, had to go, since this was not in keeping with the “egalitarian” society that he was attempting to build.
His excuse for the closure of the race course was the need to build a road link between what was then old Georgetown and the housing areas of North and South Ruimveldt which had sprung up.
There was also talk that the road link would facilitate the easy movement of bulk sugar and for opening a road link to the proposed new housing areas in South and North Ruimveldt.
And so D’Urban Park became public property, and was converted into a series of playfields on which the children of the poor of South Georgetown could play.
This development helped to ease a great deal of social tensions in those parts, and it did allow for the development of the skills of South Georgetown. Lodge itself produced a football club which, in a short period of time, made it into the first division in local football.
Burnham and Hoyte however ran the economy in the ground and the big plans which they had for D’Urban Park, including the establishment of banked cycling track, were never implemented.
But despite this, the residents of Lodge and Wortmanville, two of the largest wards in the country, had somewhere to engage in sport and recreation. Both Burnham and Hoyte retained the area as a green space.
The PPP/C turned it into a jungle. They simply neglected the area and as such there was no recreational space for the people of the surrounding areas.
For more than two decades the area was neglected under the PPP/C. At one stage it awarded a contract of some G$90M for the development of the area but it is not clear how much of that sum was utilised in the works undertaken.
When the APNU+AFC came to power in 2015, they opted to develop the facility into a recreational park with the capacity to hold national events. The end result however was a public monstrosity with the area effectively being converted into a military drill square.
Instead of grass what we had was asphalt, concrete, stone and some terribly unsightly wooden stands. There has never been a full and detailed account of what was spent and collected for the project, but it is believed that a number of private enterprises donated to the project with the government contributing close to a billion dollars.
Now the PPP/C, lacking appreciation of urban planning and the need to preserve green spaces is going to construct the Headquarters of the Guyana Fire Service on a section of the land. This will deface this formerly evergreen area.
The entire area could have been developed, without any great expenditure, into a vast park with playfields for cricket, football lawn tennis and athletics just like the Queens Park Savannah in Port of Spain. A jogging park could have been developed and also a playground for smaller children.
It is not too late to salvage D’Urban Park and convert it into a heritage site and recreate, as far as possible, something akin to the old D’Urban Park; a vast green space for recreation and sporting activities.
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

Latest News

Abandon the idea of the fire station at D’Urban Park!

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show | December, 2nd, 2024

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

Clarendon College too good for Dolphin as Annai Sec’ holds Speyside...

Glasgow excided for MLS journey with Chicago Fire

Matthews slams unbeaten 85 as Windies Women...

No room to breathe as five more teams to advance...

Sammy to be appointed as West Indies Senior...

Bangladesh hold nerve to defend 148 and take 1-0...

Features/Columnists

The stakes are high in Guyana’s democracy

Let the asylum seekers go: a first step for Venezuela to rebuild relations in the Americas

Cash grant-he last stop

Publisher’s Note

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]

Abandon the idea of the fire station at D’Urban Park!

Share this:

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show | December, 2nd, 2024

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

Features/Columnists

Publisher’s Note

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]