– says damage to the roads by freight trucks is to be blamed
The Mayor of Georgetown, Patricia Chase Green, is defending the Municipality’s decision to now charge
Mayor Patricia Chase Green
businessmen a $25,000 fee for parking container trucks along city streets for off-load goods, noting that the vehicles continue to deteriorate these thoroughfares.
Chase Green, in an interview with Guyana Times, on Wednesday said that the cost to repair to roads damaged by these trucks was being borne by the Mayor and City Council (M&CC) since previously, there was no fee attached.
Mayor Chase-Green highlighted that when the roadways become “broken” and “deteriorated”, the businessmen would be the first to accuse the Council of providing poor services.
As such, the Council took a decision last year to introduce the “container tax”.
She explained that the $25,000 would allow the freight trucks to be parked for a maximum of three days in front of the respective businesses, and for each additional day, an additional $5000 would be charged.
“I don’t think $25,000 is high. Remember those containers are coming into our city streets, and they occupy in front of your business, especially on the busy downtown areas, like Regent Street, Robb Street, Water Street and previously they paid nothing. It damages our roadways, it damages our parapets and we have to repair. These same business people complain if the roads are not proper,” she said.
The Mayor told this publication that another reason for the fee is the increased vehicular congestion when the trucks are parked in the city’s shopping districts.
She indicated that while the parking of these trucks is outlawed, that law was not being enforced.
“Everyone is coming into the city and taking out from the city every day. Nobody wants to pay for anything in the city. Yet they look forward to the city to provide all of the services for them. And if you look back to the laws, those containers should not even be on those streets. Take for instance, if you go on Friday nights to these streets, those big big trucks, loaded with rice, take up the entire Water Street, starting somewhere from Fogarty’s going way down to the seawall. We get nothing from them. And if those trucks continue like that all the time, the roads are going to be damaged. And it’s our responsibility to repair it,” she stated and asked, “Where are we going to get the money from?”
It was further related that businessmen were informed of the fee attached to parking containers outside of their businesses via the Public Relations Department between November and December of last year.
