M&CC challenged to cut down trees posing threat
COUNCILLOR Ranwell Jordan, on Monday, challenged the City Council, as a whole, to decide on cutting down all the trees in the capital that could pose a threat to life and property.
He issued the challenge at the fortnightly statutory meeting of the Mayor and City Council (M&CC), in view of the severe damage caused to a house in East Ruimveldt last Sunday. 
Jordan pointed out that a number of other trees in that area are in bad shape and could fall at any time.
In the most recent case, that caused 73-year-old Shieldston Roberts to suffer loss, Jordan requested that the City Engineer’s Department immediately undertake the necessary works to relieve the victim.
Jordan highlighted that it was a senior citizen who suffered the ‘tree attack’ and asked the Council to ensure that the man is made comfortable in his home, once again.
Councillor Leslie Sobers agreed that “all the trees looking bad” must be cut down and emphasised the importance of persons illegally squatting to remove from those areas so as to avoid such calamities.
Mr. Roberts, of Kiskadee Drive, East La Penitence, was the lone occupant of the building onto which the tree crashed.
When the Guyana Chronicle visited the scene on Monday, the tree trunk had already been cut into pieces and removed from the location by municipal workers. 
According to Roberts, the damage caused would entail hundreds of thousands of dollars in repairs and tens of thousands of dollars for replacement of his personal household effects.
Last October, five-year-old Tamicia Hackett, who was sleeping in her bed around midnight, was pinned and crushed to death when an Itae Palm tree, brought down by strong winds, collapsed on the Freeman Street home, also in East La Penitence, where she lived.
It smashed the one-bedroom dwelling and injured other family members, including her parents and a one-year-old baby.
Meanwhile, perturbed relatives and other residents in the neighbourhood recalled that those trees, towering over buildings, have always posed a problem for them and recounted at least four incidents in which persons were injured or had their houses destroyed.
Residents said they have, repeatedly, begged the City Council to send workers to help them fell the trees which continue to pose a serious threat to their properties, lives and limbs.