Dear Editor,
We the residents of Castello Housing Scheme (La Penitence) would like to voice our frustration and disappointment over the sluggish movement of the Mayor and City Council’s officials in relation to a petition which was submitted on Saturday, August 29th, 2015 calling for the removal of the physical structure which once housed the Albouystown Skills Training Centre from our community. The petition which bears the signatures of one hundred and ten residents was delivered to the Mayor, Mr Hamilton Green; Deputy Mayor, Ms Patricia Chase-Green; Town Clerk, Mr Royston King as well as the Minister of Communities; Mr Ronald Bulkan, and clearly outlined the primary reasons why we demand the structure’s removal.
On Wednesday, September 9th, correspondence acknowledging receipt of the community’s petition was received from the Office of the Town Clerk. It was also stated in the Town Clerk’s correspondence that the petition was being reviewed by “the relevant department.” Since receiving word from the Town Clerk’s Office, four visits were paid to the Mayor and City Council for updates, but each visit was met with disappointment. We were asked time and again to “come back next week.” The most recent meeting with the Town Clerk on Thursday, October 15th, bore no fruit, as he too repeated the words we have been hearing on previous visits: “Come back next week.”
A subsequent visit was paid to the Community Development Council of Georgetown where a discussion was held with Mr Donald Ainsworth. On Mr. Ainsworth’s invitation, a community meeting was called to meet with the overseer of the Albouystown Skills Training Centre, Mr Ronald Thorne on the facility’s premises, but residents retaliated in the form of a protest.
On the advice of Mr Ainsworth at the end of the community meeting, a date was proposed for the election of a Community Committee Manager to take control of the aforementioned facility. It is Mr Ainsworth’s belief that such a facility is needed and he urged the community to keep the structure, against the strong objection of residents.
It must be made clear that we the residents have no objection to skills training; however, we do not see the need for such a facility within our community, particularly one which is in such a state as the Albouystown Skills Training Center. The facility has been in existence for approximately ten years and has become nothing but a dysfunctional reject and a visually unflattering edifice, one guard dog shy of becoming a junkyard. It has always been a visual impediment to motorists and pedestrians alike, and imposed on the lives of the community’s youths who once used the space for recreational activities.
On Sunday, October 18th, 2015, the proposed date for the community election, Mr Eugene Gilbert came in the stead of Mr Ainsworth without knowledge of the gravity of the situation. Another confrontation took place between residents and the overseer in Mr Gilbert’s presence, and it was recommended that the election be postponed while community representatives were invited to a meeting at the Community Development Council’s office the following day – a further delay in decisive action being taken in the best interests of the community. That meeting too bore no fruit since Mr Ainsworth facilitated the meeting instead of Mr Gilbert, who had extended the invitation. A lengthy discussion was held during which the issues were repeated time and again with Mr Ainsworth holding firm to his stance that the community ought to keep the structure and utilize it for skills training purposes, a notion which we the residents strongly object to.
No community should have to endure diminished aesthetics, decreasing property values and the abrupt interruption of community recreation in the name of poorly planned projects such as the Albouystown Skills Training Centre which has failed the residents of the La Penitence area. Proper community development initiatives ought to begin with stakeholder consultation, community input, the fostering of a sense of social integration and cohesion, encouraging community participation, creating a sense of ownership and creating safe zones for youth development and achievement.
In the light of the reasons outlined in our petition we the residents are formally making a request for an immediate halt to current and future planned activities by the overseer, Mr Thorne, and the dismantlement or removal/relocation of the structure. Further, in supporting the Mayor and City Council’s public call for the development of a “Green City,” we propose that the facility’s location and the extensive plot of vacant land between Third Terrace and Cemetery Road be used for the development of a community park/urban green space which would be of greater long-term benefit. Parks foster social inclusion, reduce stress, improve mental well-being, add real estate value, increase aesthetic value, aid in pollution reduction and cooling, create stable neighbourhoods, offer recreational activities for at-risk youth, encourage physical exercise and sports skills enhancement, among many other short and long-term benefits.
We look forward to the intervention of the President of Guyana, and assistance in dealing with this hindrance to further social enhancement and development within our community.
Yours faithfully,
Ainsley Mayhew Dyer
On behalf of the residents of Castello
Housing Scheme, La Penitence)