By Telesha Ramnarine

CITY Hall is finalising arrangements to implement a parking meter system which is expected to deter motorists, especially taxi drivers, from parking in spaces that store owners reserve for customers.

A source told this newspaper yesterday that the meter system is a work in progress, although it is in the final stages of becoming a reality.

The M&CC is not inclined to raise the sums for rates and taxes because they are already facing difficulty in having citizens come forward to pay. The municipality is, therefore, looking at other ways to rake in more revenue and the parking meter system is being considered.

MEETING WITH GCCI
Meanwhile, the new city council met with the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) yesterday for the first time and the issue of parking was the number one issue, which was raised.

Representatives of Durga Business Enterprise, Scotia Bank, Global Seafood Distribution, Eureka Laboratory, and Silvie’s Variety Store were also present at the City Hall meeting.

According to the source, the number one complaint from the business people had to do with the availability of parking space for their customers. The meeting heard how customers have to park corners away from their business establishment in order to do business.

In the case of Scotia Bank, there is always a hassle to remove certain unauthorized vehicles and on occasion the police have had to be summoned.

City Hall has reportedly promised to look into the matter, and to work together with the GCCI on a number of other issues affecting the business community.

Meanwhile, the M&CC said recently that it noted, with concern, a letter to the Editor of a local publication, in which the following contention is stated: “After disastrous past experiences, the City Council should not be allowed to preside over parking arrangements for minibus and taxi parks in the City. The Municipal and District Councils Act gives it no such power. It is a police function, which appears to have been abandoned as the City Council assumed jurisdiction.”

However, Public Relations Officer at City Hall, Debra Lewis, has debunked this contention. She cites Chapter 28:01 of the Municipal and District Councils Act, Clauses 272 and 274, which read thus: (272) “A Council shall have power, subject to the provisions of the Town and Country Planning Act, the Roads Act, and the Motor Vehicles and Road Traffic Act, to construct, maintain, repair, protect, and carry out works for the betterment of Council roads in its Council area, and to regulate and control traffic thereon.”

On ‘Traffic Control’, Section 274 reads: “Without prejudice to the generality of the power to regulate and control traffic on Council roads, conferred by Section 272 but subject to the provisions thereof, the Council may: establish, maintain and control car parks; 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-way streets, and require all vehicles thereon to move in one specified direction; require vehicles to stop before entering or crossing any Council road, or to yield to other traffic; and restrict the use of any Council roads to vehicles of specified types or weights.”

Lewis also noted that the Council has for some time not been fulfilling this mandate and so it has now come as something relatively new and ‘not known’ to many persons. “We would have spoken to the Traffic Chief and he also knows the laws and he has pledged to help train our ranks.”