More than 50 anti-parking meter protesters stood in the downpour outside of City Hall for just over an hour yesterday as they awaited the outcome of City Council’s vote on the government’s direction that the metered parking by-laws be suspended for 90 days.
Representing just a small proportion of the usual contingent, the Movement Against Parking Meters (MAPM) supporters broke off from their regularly scheduled Thursday protests in order to ensure that their stance that only a complete revocation of the contract for the project will be accepted did not momentarily escape the minds of the city’s councillors.
Shouts of “revoke!” resonated, intensified, and carried from the street to Council’s Chambers, where an extraordinary statutory meeting was underway. Ostensibly called to vote on the order to suspend the by-laws, the meeting did not even address the issue, but voted for ‘time’ to peruse a legal opinion to the suspension order. (See story on Page 11)
“We’re supporting the team in there; we’re still looking for a revocation of the contract and we’re hoping that they’ll make a very sensible decision in there… We’re waiting for the outcome of that and then we’ll decide if we’re coming to protest on Thursday and what decisions will follow up,” Raquel Thomas-Caesar, a MAPM organiser noted.
George Fraser, who stated that he is a member of Transparency Institute of Guyana, condemned the contract, which he referred to as a “secret agreement,” while stating that advice should have been sought.
“…I was involved with Transparency International in trying to work to make sure we clarify what was going on with the last regime and this is driving me crazy because this is an exact example of what we were fighting about, so I don’t know what we changed for,” he said.
The majority of the crowd dispersed just after 3 pm, before the council’s meeting ended.
On Friday, Minister of Communities Ronald Bulkan issued an order for the Georgetown metered parking by-laws to be suspended for 90 days.
The order, titled the Georgetown Metered Parking (Suspension) Order 2017, states, “It is declared that the Mayor and Councillors of the City of Georgetown are in default of their functions with respect to the Georgetown Metered Parking By-Laws and I hereby direct the Mayor and Councillors to suspend the Georgetown Metered Parking By-Laws for three months commencing on the 17th March, 2017.”
