City Mayor Alfred Mentore yesterday said that the Promenade Gardens are open to the public despite the fact that on three separate days, visits by this newspaper found it closed to visitors.
It appears that the historic garden has been closed to the public for months and is available only for events at a fee.
Several members of the public have complained about this and during its visits last week and yesterday, Stabroek News was told by guards that the garden was closed but at their discretion persons could be let in for brief visits.
Mentore yesterday said that the garden has been open to the public and that the only restriction was in relation to persons who were not well-received by other members of the public i.e. vagrants.
Mentore said that this newspaper should have made an effort to reach out to him. However, Stabroek News pointed out that numerous efforts were made and calls and texts to him went unanswered.
In a Facebook post on August 11, 2023, Nirmala Ramroop-Ter Welle questioned what was happening with the garden. In her post, she said, “What is up with the Promenade Garden? Is this now a private garden? It is definitely not open to the public. I read on the internet that the garden belongs to the M&CC but nothing about opening times, entrance fees, etc., only that you can use it for events. The place is locked up, and no one can visit this garden unless you pay $2000 per person to the guard to have a look around.”
She added: “While I support paying to visit the garden to help with the upkeep and maintenance, it doesn’t augur well with me to pay a private person to visit a facility owned by the people of Guyana. Something is not right! Maybe someone can enlighten me.”
It was this post that prompted the newspaper to investigate. When Stabroek News visited on Thursday, September 7, 2023, the reporter was told that the gardens were closed and that members of the public are not allowed in. However, the guard allowed the reporter in for 30 minutes.
An article published by Stabroek News on Friday, September 8 about the closure of the garden to the public, garnered the attention of several persons in the newspaper’s online comments section.
Cosmata Lindie said: “Found that out since last year when I visited. Was told that it isn’t open, but they let us in for a brief walk around. Don’t know what the issue with reopening it is. It’s a nice place to just walk around and relax.”
Valencia Harris, another commenter, said, “This has been this way for a while now, but they let us in for a brief walk around and out back.”
Enid Budhoo stated “They always closed as far as I am concerned, wow.”
This newspaper made contact with Republic Bank (Guyana) Limited on Friday to inquire about the closure and persons being prevented from entering the garden.
Jonelle Dummett, a manager at the Republic Bank head office, said that the bank only provides support for the maintenance of the garden and that they were unaware of the closure and only learned about it through the article published in Stabroek News on Friday.
