The boycott of metered parking in the city continued yesterday, with the majority of drivers opting to park outside of the metered zone, while those that did occupy the zone did so mostly without feeding the meters.
On Friday, new tiered parking rates were unveiled and Smart City Solutions (SCS) announced the easing of enforcement measures, during a press conference.
A tour around the central business hub of the city after 2 pm, saw about four vehicles with receipts on their dashboards indicating that they had purchased parking time. Stabroek News toured Regent, Charlotte, Water, Main, Carmichael, Robb, Camp, King and Water streets and Avenue of the Republic.
Most motorists opted to use free spaces available on the eastern side of the Camp Street stretching to Alexander Street. From pictures seen circulating on social media, the majority of the paid parking spaces were boycotted during the morning hours.
A taxi driver who operates from Camp Street indicated that he had not purchased time to park.
“If I had to buy time I would have done spend about $1,000 for today. Since the meter, we hardly getting to make money. If I make $2,500 that is a lot,” he recounted. He added that other taxi drivers’ planned to boycott the system and have not been purchasing time.
When this publication visited Water Street, vendors related that between 12.30 pm and 1.30 pm the parking spaces were filled. They explained after SCS wardens began their routine patrols persons evacuated the spaces as they had not paid to park.
Questioned, a warden from SCS told Stabroek News that they were told that persons who over spent their time can be clamped and warned but would not be required to pay the stipulated fee.
At a press conference on Friday, (SCS) Director of Business Development Amir Oren had said that while there has been no change to the costs attached to sanctions under the contract, there will be a 15-minute grace period afforded to motorists and a one month “adjustment period.”
Motorists are no longer required to pay for the use of a particular parking space; rather, they will be paying for parking time for their particular cars.
The highly controversial metered parking system has been rejected by citizens. The rejection sparked three massive protests by the newly-formed group Movement Against Parking Meters and has also attracted the attention of the High Court.
In one case, brought by the New Building Society against Minister of Communities Ronald Bulkan to defend his approval of the bylaws and Town Clerk Royston King to show reason why bylaws should not be quashed, was heard yesterday morning.
Neither Bulkan nor King was present in court before Justice Brassington Reynolds and they were given two weeks to file and serve affidavits in response to the order.
Meanwhile, the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Guyana (FITUG) called for the complete rescinding of the contract, in a statement issued yesterday.
FITUG said it felt, “constrained to iterate its rejection of the metered parking project as currently conceived and being implemented in the country’s capital, Georgetown.”
According to the statement, FITUG is not satisfied with the stated reduction of charges and viewed it as “palliatives meant to buy time as City Hall and the Mexican company explore other schemes in pursuit of profits and revenues squeezed from the already hard-pressured population besieged today by heavy taxation, rising consumer costs.”
It added that FITUG was “extremely upset that in the context of the Granger administration’s boast about transparency and accountability,” the contract with SCS was concluded between the Mayor and selected councillors.
FITUG offered its full support to Deputy Mayor Sherod Duncan for his principled stand against the absence of transparency.
