Stanleytown illuminated with street lights after 35 years

The main access road at Stanleytown, New Amsterdam were on Monday evening illuminated with street lights after residents’ pleadings for some 35 years.
Many elated residents came out in their numbers to witness the transformation. For decades, residents had been calling for lights to be placed along Main Street and promises were forthcoming.
Back in 1982, there were weekly reports of women being dragged into the Stanleytown Cemetery and raped; those reports were punctuated by reports of robberies being committed in the same way. Many of the victims in both cases were persons on their way home from work.
Back then, there were numerous appeals for street lights to be placed at strategic points, with the cemetery being the main focus, but the people had to wait for two changes of Government before the lights became a reality.
Under the previous Administration, residents were told that lights were being secured. Residents waited and saw several other parts of the region having street lights installed, with most of those areas significantly less populated.
Several petitions had been sent to different levels of Government. The Town Council had distanced itself from the responsibility claiming that since it no longer had the responsibility for providing electricity to residents, the then Guyana Electricity Corporation (GEC) and subsequently Guyana Power and Light (GPL) had been demanding that the Council pay for street lighting, something it could ill-afford.
Residents have expressed delight at what could be considered a new development. Constituency representative Eusi Smith says the now lighted streets will have a positive impact and act as a deterrent to persons with criminal intent.
In April, Minister within the Public Infrastructure Ministry Annette Ferguson had announced that the street lamps would have been installed soon. The lighting programme will see street lights being installed from Stanleytown to Everton on the East Bank of Berbice covering a distance of more than five miles.