-if parking meter zones are expanded

A POSSIBLE extension of the metered parking zone by the Mayor and City Council (M&CC) of Georgetown has prompted political and social commentator, Ralph Ramkarran to issue a call for “civil resistance.”Referencing a full page advertisement carried in Wednesday’s edition of Kaieteur News, which shows the area targeted for a possible extension of the metered parking system, Ramkarran said this offers a “frightening prospect”. If pursued, 1200 parking meters will be installed in the targeted areas.

The commentator, who once served as Speaker of the National Assembly, expressed this view in a post made on popular social media site, Facebook on Wednesday.

“The advertisement in Kaieteur News… offers a frightening prospect,” he said,adding that if push comes to shove, and the extension policy is adopted, the stalwart citizens who have initiated a citizens’ campaign against the meters should think of an alternative strategy which he proposes.
This strategy, he said, is that “a campaign of civil resistance should be immediately launched”.

“All private, taxi and mini bus drivers should be mobilised to park in any place in the city and decline to pay for parking. Some will be clamped but SCS and the City Council cannot clamp all the vehicles,” Ramkarran wrote.

He said that simultaneously, a fund should be launched to pay the charges for any person whose parked vehicle has been clamped upon production of the necessary receipt, and that he is prepared to start the fund with a contribution of $100,000.

In speaking to the approach by the M&CC, he noted that a divide and rule tactic would be to offer a modest reduction in the charges for parking, followed by an expansion of parking meters in a larger portion of the Red Zone.
He said that such a development would make it difficult for persons working in the heart of Georgetown, where meters have been installed, to park outside it and walk to their place of work or to do business.

According to him, the reality is that the charges for parking are simply unaffordable to most people and that the M&CC and Smart City Solution (SCS) – the company contracted to manage and operate the meters – do not seem to understand this.
The rates currently being charged for parking is $50+$8 Value Added Tax (VAT) for 15 minutes.

“Regular workers in the City who own cars simply cannot afford another expenditure of $32,000 a month,” Ramkarran opined.

He added that taxi and mini bus passengers will not be able to afford the additional charges as a result of the vehicles having to pay parking fees.

“If they have to pay it or anything other than a reduction to $40 an hour, they will have to abandon their motor vehicles. SCS and the City Council will eventually realise that insults cannot change this reality,” the political commentator said.