Universal Church never had reserved parking – Mayor

…as pastor, driver clash over Charlotte St parking

As a heated standoff between a Universal Church pastor and a driver over parking on Charlotte Street, Georgetown near the church unfolded, Georgetown Mayor, Alfred Mentore has said that the church never had, never applied for and was never considered for reserved parking along the situated pathway.

During the incident which took place on Monday, the City Engineer’s Department was deployed to the location. Upon inspection, all encumbrances placed by the church to prevent members of the public from parking were removed.
According to Mentore, one of the videos he saw on social media concerned the Universal Church located at Charlotte and Wellington Streets, where a pastor spoke about an issue related to parking.
According to Mentore, “This council, and let me make it clear, this council has never given the Universal Church any parking. No parking facility was even ever applied for by the Universal Church to this council for them to have reserved parking.”

He emphasised that it was very erroneous for the pastor to speak so vociferously about “reserved parking” and to appear as though the church had been granted such privileges by the council. Mentore made it clear that the council never considered any parking arrangement for the church. He added that the council has never treated with these types of issues and that steps have already been taken in response. He also stated, “I think there’s a post made by earlier by the department of the council which is the PR department to speak of where we act on this issue and that we went there just after we got this news item to remove anything or any hindrance or any blocking or any exclusive arrangement they feel they had.”
According to Mentore, the situation will continue to be monitored, and he expressed that the council will ensure the area remains cleared so that anyone can park there at any time. “We will ensure this because those are reserves of the council and there’s no exclusive arrangement for that.”
The mayor further said that only embassies, the Bank of Guyana, and a few other designated entities are granted such privileges.