City Hall announced last week that it was about to “recommence an aggressive campaign which aims at the removal of all derelict vehicles and other encumbrances from roadsides, sidewalks, parapets and reserves belonging to the city”, adding that the owners would be fined for the removal and storage of such encumbrances.
Whatever the city’s intention and regardless of how long it might have been planning this move, it comes across as a knee-jerk reaction to the recent death of motorist Trevon Butters whose vehicle crashed into a truck that had long been parked on Princes Street. The incident resulted in Mr Butters’s death and serious injury to his partner Ms Natasha Sobers who was a passenger in his vehicle. At the time, the city, through its public relations office, reminded that it had carried out campaigns against encumbrances in 2016, 2017 and 2018.
One has to assume then that these campaigns have been largely unsuccessful since encumbrances, including derelict vehicles, continue to pop up on parapets, government reserves and streets where they serve not only as eyesores, but as blind spots for road users and otherwise hamper careful use of the already crowded streets. This does not only occur in the city; the lawlessness abounds elsewhere and unfortunately is treated with in a similar fashion until something terrible happens – as in the case of Mr Butters and Ms Sobers.
Furthermore, officials are way too fond of campaigns. Why are buzzwords being used to make it seem like the city or the police or whichever agency is doing a bit of extra when in fact it is barely doing its job? So, there are clean-up campaigns, when truly the Mayor and City Council’s (M&CC) workers should be keeping the city clean; or the police will announce traffic campaigns targeting speeding, loud music in minibuses, or motorcyclists riding without helmets. Does this mean they look the other way when campaigns are not on? These are part of their jobs that should be done every single day.
The public should be well aware that it is a contravention of the Municipal & District Councils Act Chapter 28:01 for old and derelict vehicles to be abandoned on public thoroughfares and aside from that it is an environmental and traffic hazard. This means that the M&CC is within its right to take whatever action it deems necessary to rid the city of broken-down vehicles and encumbrances. Instead, these things are allowed to slide for so long that the persons who are in violation of the law believe they have a right to block and encumber.
Were the M&CC and other municipalities more proactive, persons would think twice about parking old vehicles and dumping building materials and builders’ waste on parapets and thoroughfares as well as illegally extending their businesses, including scrap-iron storage, onto the government’s reserves and streets.
And the problem does not only lie with private citizens. Back in 2016, residents of West Ruimveldt had complained about two old firetrucks, an old bus and other mechanical parts that had been parked along the road adjacent to the West Ruimveldt Fire Station for a long time.
There have been complaints from citizens as far away as the Corentyne about obstructions on the roadway, including derelict agricultural machinery and the risk they pose to life.
Last year, the Central Housing and Planning Authority said that it had issued 3,050 warnings to residents on the East Bank Demerara alone, which had to do with them desisting from dumping of construction material on roadways and parapets, desisting from blocking interlocking drains with building material, desisting from parking of storage containers on parapets, and stopping the dumping of derelict vehicles and garbage on parapets.
Research going back to 2010 shows that the M&CC and the Ministry of Public Works/Public Infrastructure had issued several notices regarding encumbrances along with threats that they would move against the offending parties. Furthermore, in 2016, the Ministry of Public Infrastructure invited bids for the supply of a car crusher, bids under its Guyana Restoration Project, which it estimated would cost $42 million, to be used in the disposal of derelict vehicles.
Last year March, the same ministry began the construction of a dump site for derelict vehicles at Kuru Kuru, Linden-Soesdyke Highway. It was estimated at the time that the site would be completed in two months and that similar sites would be built around the country for the same purpose.
It is not known whether this facility is up and running, but there is no reason why it shouldn’t be. The government should now be offering this disposal service to the public for a small fee which it should triple or quadruple if it had to do the removal after an encumbrance has been on the street for more than a few days. These are actions that should be ongoing if there is to be a restoration of order to what has long been a lawless society. No more campaigns, the M&CC, other municipalities and the government must be more proactive.
