…agreement reached on the use of access road

GIFTLAND Mall and the Mayor and City Council on Friday reached an agreement over the use of the access road, which has been a scene of much controversy in recent weeks. In a statement Giftland said that at 3PM Friday there was a meeting between the Town Clerk, Royston King & the Chief Engineer, Colvern Venture, for the M&CC and Peter Abdool, Roy Beepat and Dale Beresford of Optimum Safety for the Giftland Mall.

At the heart of the matter was the safety concern for the Mall clients and the reckless manner in which the residents of the Boyer Development were using the roads. Giftland said Mr. Abdool explained that due to the fact that the road was not gazetted that the Mall was responsible for the insurance, street marking, paving, parapets, street lighting and maintenance of the access roadways, and that presently the City would not be able to assume the additional responsibility of up-keeping the roads. He said too that Giftland would continue to maintain, monitor and control traffic to ensure that a free flow of traffic is maintained, as was being done before last week’s intervention by the City.

According to Giftland it was resolved that the action by the Town Clerk in removing the signs were hasty and an apology was extended for not being able to contact Mr Beepat to sort this matter out prior to the action being taken of the forceful removal of the Mall property, which the Chief Engineer has promised to return. Mr. Beepat stated that it is always his intention to work peacefully with the City and regretted that Mr King, whom he has a long and cordial relationship with, and Mr Venture had not been able to resolve this issue prior to the actions last week and hoped that in the future a closer working relationship would develop for any other issue.