CHAIRMAN of the Implementation Committee for the changes at City Hall, Mr. Keith Burrowes inaugurated an anti- littering unit at a meeting there on Wednesday.

It is part of a wider effort to address the growing garbage issues in Georgetown and the Municipal Public Relations Officer, Mr. Royston King, in invited comments, said it is a welcome package of support from Burrowes.
King conceded that, even if the Council was to collect all the taxes owed to it, the monies would still not be enough to address or deal with the current problems faced, especially as it relates to garbage collection.
“This cannot be done without the support of the various stakeholders and we welcome this support by Mr. Burrowes. We hope that others would come on board with yet another effort to keep the city clean and healthy,” King emphasised.
Burrowes had earlier addressed the gathering, stating that he is hopeful this fairly new initiative, which aims at curbing the garbage controversy in the capital, will be a success.
A group, numbering 12 or more persons, has been identified to be trained, through a crash course, to educate them more on the approach to getting the job done.
“It’s a brief training which will be facilitated by me and its being done because we want the people to understand that it’s not only to see those dumping but to maintain what we are doing and for them to try and advocate in this regard,” he explained.
Upon completion of the training in monitoring and negotiating, by Ms. Joyce Sinclair, each monitor will receive a certificate (signed by the subject Minister and the Mayor) to further put on record the qualification for the purpose.
“What we intend to do is have people who are recognised by the taxpayers out there …they will be monitoring how citizens (businessmen and businesswomen) discard of their garbage,” Burrowes stated.
He noted that, over the years, City Hall has taken steps to correct the situation but it managed to get “out of hand.”

Different mechanisms
“The M&CC has tried, over the years, to use different mechanisms to correct the situation…the situation really got out of hand because the Council did not maintain the City as it was expected to,” Burrowes said.
According to him, as a result of this irresponsibility, people living on the outskirts of the city also started dumping in near and surrounding areas.
He said an assessment form was created for the monitoring team and this is expected to assist in finding those areas that are oftentimes more saturated with garbage.
“We will be using whatever limited resources we have available to get this job done,” Burrowes assured.
He promised that he would try his best to expand this move to get the City clean, with the help of the citizens and businessmen and businesswomen.
In addition, Burrowes said several memoranda of understating will be signed in keeping with the quest to keep the city clean.