Despite a pending court action halting the controversial Parking Meter Project, the Georgetown Mayor and City Council (M&CC) on Friday announced that it will be resuming paid parking throughout the city come Monday, a move which the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) Opposition said is a “callous” disregard of the judicature.
The M&CC announced that paid parking throughout the city will resume come Monday
In a statement on Saturday, the Party posited “This is nothing short of brazen, wanton and gross disrespect for the Chief Justice (ag) of this country and Orders of the High Court.”
The Opposition pointed out that the February 16 order, or Rule nisi of Certiorari, granted by acting Chief Justice Yonette Cummings-Edwards quashed the Parking Meter Contract entered into between the Town Clerk of the City of Georgetown and Smart City Solutions Inc, as well as the implementation of the said contract, and the Town Clerk has been ordered to show cause to the court why these orders should not be made absolute on February 27.
Notwithstanding, the PPP outlined in the statement that Georgetown Mayor Patricia Chase Green has signalled that the City Council will resume the implementation of the parking meter system in the city on Monday. The Opposition believes that the Mayor would not be so bold to demonstrate such contempt for the legal process and to defy the three Orders of the High Court of this country, unless she has the support of Central Government.
“This is symptomatic of the callous disregard that the Government, itself, has repeatedly exhibited for the rule of law. It is apt at this juncture to remind of the vulgar abuse of the Chancellor of the Judiciary by the Attorney General, Basil Williams, in the State-owned Chronicle newspaper a few weeks ago and the numerous violations of the Constitution which are committed regularly and with impunity by this Administration,” the Party said in the missive on Saturday.
The PPP also called on the diplomatic and international community to take account of what it said is “the systematic and the institutionalised undermining” of the legal system and the rule of law that are taking place in the country.
“We call upon the Mayor, the Town Clerk and the City Council of Georgetown to respect the rule of law and the Orders of the High Court and to put on hold, the implementation of the Parking Meter Project, until the hearing and determination of the legal proceedings which are pending. Needless to say, that our call now is without prejudice to our original position to which we hold steadfast, that is, that the Parking Meter Project should be scrapped,” the Opposition asserted.
This announcement to restart paid parking in the capital city was announced on Friday at a joint press conference between the M&CC and Smart City Solutions, the company contracted to carry out the project.
When questioned about this decision to restart the project in light of the pending court action, the Mayor explained that legal advice was sought on the matter. “My understanding of the matter before the court is one that doesn’t stop us; there’s not an injunction that stops us from operating,” she posited.
At that point, Town Clerk Royston King interjected and blocked further questioning on the issue since it was before the court.
On Thursday last, Justice Cummings-Edwards handed down a court order calling on the M&CC, and the Town Clerk, the named respondents, to show cause why the project should not be quashed. The order was granted after an application for judicial review was made by Attorney Kamal Ramkarran, on behalf of Mohendra Arjune.
The respondents will have to present their case on February 27, before Justice Brassington Reynolds. Also on that date, a second court action on the Parking Meter Project against the City Council filed by the New Building Society (NBS) will also come up for hearing, where the Town Clerk and Communities Minister Ronald Bulkan were ordered to present arguments why the Parking Meter Project should not be quashed.
Minister Bulkan had signed-off on the By-laws to green-light paid parking in the city last month.
The Parking Meter Project has caused wide-spread criticism with various stakeholders calling for it to be cancelled. It has also attracted mass protest actions.
