Dear Editor
Every Saturday, Sunday, and Monday around 2.30 in the morning, a blast of party music startles awake hardworking residents, senior citizens, and schoolchildren of Queens-town and Bel Air Park in a 4-block radius, and continues to deafen everyone for the next four hours, or until providence brings a blessed rainstorm. Revellers, probably coming from discos and bars that have closed for the night, park in the Vlissengen Road Shell Gas Station every weekend without fail ‒ up to twenty-five cars were counted on one occasion. They crank up the volume in a car loaded with speakers, and although they must have enough sense to know that people in the neighbourhood are asleep at that hour, proceed to disturb the peace. Several residents have personally requested that Shell obey George-town’s noise ordinance and force these people to cease and desist. The police have been called too frequently to mention, but the noise continues. This begs the question: Does Vlissengen Shell, which is open 24/7, somehow have tacit permission to operate an open air disco? The owners of the franchise say no, and have attempted to put an end to it, but bound by contract, have found themselves powerless to stop these revellers from taking over their gas station and drinking and generally partying raucously, until 6.30 in the morning. The Sol Guyana Head Office (parent company, where the buck stops), has done nothing but advise residents, through the owners of the franchise, to call the police as often as they need to (unlike the community conscious Rubis Head Office, which took the matter in hand and stopped the noise when they were faced with a similar problem). Has this city really reached the state of degeneracy where gangs of bacchanalians can now hold private citizens, companies, and the police, hostage for as long as they like, or is there some other reason why Sol Guyana, and the police, are not stepping up to the plate?
We have nothing against people gathering at Shell Gas Station at whatever hour they feel like, if that’s what Shell permits, but the noise should be confined to the gas station, and the right of people to sleep at night respected. (According to Guyana’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), ‘No person is allowed to operate any sound-making device or equipment in a public place between the hours of 23:00 h and 07:00 h, except with the prior written permission of the EPA.’)
Queenstown and Bel Air residents are appealing to the police force, the city council, the EPA, the Government of Guyana, to help resolve this issue immediately, and allow some normalcy to return to the lives of those of us who live in the vicinity of this gas station.
Yours faithfully,
(Names and addresses provided)
Editor’s note
We are sending a copy of this letter to Sol Guyana for any comment they might wish to make.
