Illegal liquor shops creating noise nuisance at Waiakabra – residents

The community of Waiakabra, Soesdyke-Linden Highway, is being plagued by noise nuisance as a result of a number of illegal liquor shops operating in the area. Residents told Guyana Times on Tuesday that these shops are selling alcoholic beverages and are in the habit of playing loud music all day and into the wee hours of the morning, thereby causing a disturbance.
Aliya De Abreu told this publication that she was forced to move out of the community and stay with a relative during her son’s CSEC examination period in order for him to be able to study undisturbed.
“I had to stay at my sister in Soesdyke when my son was preparing for his exams. The noise is too much…the music wakes you up in the mornings and after midnight they music still on top. It’s terrible here. And nobody doing anything about them. We fed up calling police on them and they never show up,” she said.
Another resident claimed that these shops are operating without a license and in addition to the noise nuisance, they create a haven for unlawful activities and disorderly behaviour in their community.
“The noise is really affecting us. The loud music would run anybody mad, and no matter how much we try to talk to these people and ask them to show some consideration for us, they just don’t care. They have people drinking and carrying on there making noise, fighting up and all kinds of nonsense going on there. We fed up and we want someone to look into this,” Adesie James related to this publication.
They are calling on the relevant authorities to intervene and set some stipulations on those operators and a few residents who want to follow suit and compete with those shops in playing loud music.
Leah Persaud, a resident for over 15 years, told this newspaper that as of recent, some residents are now in the habit of playing their music at loud volumes. “What’s going on here is that some residents want to compete with these shops. They saying that nobody ain’t doing anything about those people so they gonna play their music equally as loud trying to start a problem and that isn’t right. This used to be a peaceful area and now a set of lawlessness and madness going on here. The music is enough to send anybody mad in this place…you can take a drive in here any afternoon into night and you will hear the music by the time you turn off the highway,” she said.
She noted that on several occasions, she personally went to the Kuru Kuru Police Outpost and made numerous calls to the Timehri Police Station in an effort to have a patrol visit the area and offer a warning to those persons, however, her efforts were always unsuccessful. “I went plenty times to the outpost but they always saying they don’t have vehicle available. I stop going there and I started calling Timehri police and reporting over and over. All they say is that they hear about the problem and they will look into it soon and to date nothing. We asking that the police come in here and look into this problem because it affecting us a very long time now. We pleading with them to maintain a presence here,” she added.
The residents urged the police to conduct regular patrols in the community to ensure peace and order is restored and operators abide by the law.