After seven straight weeks of anti-parking meter protests, the Government will finally move to recommend that the Georgetown Mayor and City Council (M&CC) suspend the controversial contract.
According to sources, the decision was made at Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting. There are also expectations that further consultations and a full review of the system and contract will be requested.
Since the Georgetown M&CC runs the municipality, it is understood that Communities Minister Ronald Bulkan would be the one to meet with the City Council to discuss the decision.
The Government has maintained a careful distance on the issue after the Finance Ministry and the Attorney General’s Chambers completed damning reviews of the original contract.
The Government has consistently said that it could not interfere as City Hall was autonomous –although that position changed in January when Natural Resources Minister Raphael Trotman said that the State would intervene only if necessary.
And even though amendments were made by the company, Smart City Solutions Incorporated (SCSI), a visibly large proportion of the populace has rejected all but the scrapping of the contract.
Just two weeks after the introduction of parking meters in Guyana, citizens had gathered to protest the move. The crowd had consisted of parliamentarians, business owners and members of civil society.
The Movement Against Parking Meters (MAPM), a lobby group, was instrumental in organising the protests. The protests also came after Georgetown Deputy Mayor Sherod Duncan, who has been vociferous in his opposition to the project, staged a one-man protest outside Bishops’ High School, where a parking meter had been installed.
The protesters had listed several concerns with the project. Feasibility, transparency and the cost for parking were some of the foremost concerns about the City Council’s new method of taxation.
Some had agitated for the immediate removal of the parking meters owing to the expenses and the slowdown in commerce which businesses experienced.
Others, however, had stated that they were merely requesting a reduction in the cost, as the current rates did not cater for working-class citizens and the poor.
The first protest had been greeted by pro-parking meter activists. Mayor Patricia Chase Green had also responded to the protesters, who she referred to as “high class”. She had claimed that persons failed to engage the Council on matters concerning the parking meters, and chose various forms of demonstration instead.
Supported by the Town Clerk Royston King, the duo had highlighted the advantages of the initiative, including creating more than 50 jobs. King had labelled the protesters’ actions as “backwards thinking”, stating that the meters would ensure the restoration and development of the country.
Since the implementation of the meters, however, all evidence points to the contrary. Motorists have largely boycotted the metered spaces and businesses have complained bitterly about a slump.
The Georgetown Chambers of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) and the Private Sector Commission (PSC) have reported complaints of a 50 per cent drop in sales from the business community.
And protests have shown no signs of losing steam, despite several belated attempts by SCSI and the Mayor and Town Clerk to mollify those who are against the project. Large signboards have even been erected urging citizens to support a project seen by Government reviews as monopolistic and oppressive.
Meanwhile, efforts to contact Minister of State, Joseph Harmon, to expound on Cabinet’s deliberations were futile.
