OVER the years, consistent increases in the number of minibuses and cars used for public transportation have congested the Stabroek Market area and have brought disorder to a central part of Georgetown.For this reason, the Georgetown City Council has commenced a process aimed at enforcing parking regulations in several sections of the city. A special demarcation exercise, which allows for buses to be properly laned has commenced, and would facilitate the smooth flow of minibus traffic at the Lodge/South and Kitty Campbellville minibus parks.

This pattern would be repeated throughout the city, and the Council is considering several proposals to establish other bus parks around Georgetown.

The Municipal and District Councils Act empowers the Georgetown Municipality to regulate and control the Council’s roads. “A Council shall have power, subject to the provisions of the Town and Country Planning Act, the Road Act, and the Motor Vehicle and Road Traffic Act, to construct, maintain, repair, protect, and carry out works for the betterment of Council roads in Council areas, and to regulate and control traffic thereon,” Section 274 of the Municipal and District Councils Act states.

The Act also states that the Council can “establish, maintain and control parking; erect and maintain parking meters; regulate the standing and parking of vehicles on Council roads; erect and maintain traffic control signals and traffic signs on council roads; regulate the speed of vehicles on council roads; designate particular council roads as one-way roads or one specified direction; require vehicles to stop before entering or crossing any council road or to yield to other traffic; restrict the use of any council roads to vehicles of specified type or weight.”

By Michel Outridge