These green spaces in city should be restored

Dear Editor, 

As an earnest tax paying citizen of Georgetown, can the Council inform us when the current Mayor and Councillors of the City of Georgetown will embark upon correcting the wrongs and repairing the extensive damage that was willfully done to our capital city by a former senior administrative municipal staffer? 

If one were to take a stroll in the Bel Air Park neighbourhood along where the empty lots known as R3 and R4 are located, one can still observe the remaining evidence of the venal attempt at land grabbing by the ‘Fantastic Four’. There is an old shipping container and a dilapidated and teetering guard hut defacing one side whilst the other side has been made into a swamp that breeds mosquitoes and cultivates copious amounts of wild brush, weeds and trees due to it being recklessly excavated when the gang was trying to illegally convert this dedicated open space into a dedicated upscale housing plot for themselves. The area needs to be restored into an aesthetically pleasing open space. The same goes for the Farnum Ground in the Subryanville area where another illegal land grab attempt was made.  

In the downtown area there are old cut up railway tracks that have been placed along some sidewalks, which serve no useful purpose other than to give ‘the boys’ some jobs and some free money to cut up and bolt down this scrap metal. This should be removed and sold to the scrap metal dealers. 

And then there is the unfinished and now derelict ‘Presidential Park’ at the eastern extremity of Church Street and North Road, which was an unrefined attempt to pander to the politicians. This eyesore needs to be either completed by the relevant agency or torn down. Should this area not be returned to a green space as part of our city’s and country’s green agenda?

And further west of these same two roadways there is the area that was assigned to street barbers, cosmetologists, and beauticians many of whom are unlicensed which is now nothing short of a shantytown with a number of rickety makeshift tents barely standing, adorned with scraps of multi coloured plastic, cloth, and canvas, and which is ironically named ‘The Beauty Promenade’. In the interest of developing our tourism industry this area should be cleared and cleaned in addition to the dog kennel type structures that were constructed a little further west supposedly a ‘Farmers Market’ for wholesalers who bring their produce for sale on Thursdays and Fridays from the rural areas. 

Surely this depravity should not be allowed to continue so long after the ‘King and Queen’ were sent packing. 

We need to take back our city from this unlawfulness.

Yours faithfully, 

Anu Bihari