Despite complaints from residents of East Street and a petition to the President, Mayor Hamilton Green stated on Monday that the City Council will keep the paid parking lot there.
In a letter in Saturday’s edition of Stabroek News, 100 residents pleaded for President David Granger to have the paid parking lot ended.
The letter stated that the Government of Guyana, in collaboration with the Mayor and Councillors of the City of Georgetown and the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPHC), had asphalted over the lawns and the pedestrian footpath between the eastern and western halves of northern East Street with the intention of providing improved parking facilities for doctors, nurses, students, employees of the GPHC and visitors to the institution and neighbouring establishments.
The area provided a facility for residents who lived in the back houses without a driveway along East Street and now the new addition of the pay-for-parking has been hindering the residents. “Now where are we supposed to park?
The entire parking lot takes up most of the space and it’s a lot of residents,” one of the residents stated, pointing out that at nights the road area is usually packed with cars.
However, Green told Stabroek News on Monday that the Council would be keeping the parking lot as he believes that parking in the city needs urgent regularising.
He said he believes it will be beneficial in the long run and that people should develop a culture where they are not so entirely dependent on their private vehicles. “People always want to drive everywhere. They want to go to the hospital, market, everywhere they want to drive,” he said, stating that persons should use public transportation sometimes to ease the parking issue and traffic congestion that is currently troubling the city.
In reference to the petition that was signed and sent to the president, Green stated that most of the signatures were from persons who weren’t even residing in the area.
He also added that the implementation of the paid parking lot is part of a general review of congestion and that other places in the city would be procured to be turned into paid parking lots.
Not only residents had condemned the parking lot. Frequent visitors to the GPHC had also expressed their disappointment. “I don’t know why they would even do that. The price is too high. It doesn’t make any sense and nobody is going to want to use it. Parking is already a huge issue in and around the city and now you’re making people pay for it? It doesn’t make sense,” a driver reasoned.
The letter had added: “The additional tax of ‘pay for parking’ in Guyana is overwhelming, as we continue to work tirelessly for the development of Guyana by paying property rates and taxes and Value Added Tax, as well as make payments to the National Insurance Scheme and Pay As You Earn tax scheme… By disassembling the East Street paid parking area, thousands of Guyanese will be once again be benefiting from the generosity of the Government of Guyana, as we live in an environment of peace and justice with adequate security and freedom while we seek free medical care from the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation and the opportunity to enjoy a better life for all Guyanese.”
