The announcement by the Georgetown Mayor and City Council (M&CC), that it will slash the parking meter rates by 50 per cent has been deemed unacceptable by anti-parking meters activists as they once again staged a midday protest outside of City Hall on Thursday demanding that the contract between Smart City Solutions (SCS) and the council be scrapped. Along Regent Street many businesses closed their doors so that the owners and their staff could protest in solidarity with the Movement Against Parking Meters (MAPM) at noon on Thursday.
Women’s Rights activist Karen De Souza told reporters on Thursday that the contract must be revoked as it represents the “selling out” of the city.
She described the parking meter contract as one that seeks to privatise public space. “As I understand it, the contract and the by-laws forbid any parking that is not regulated by this company…that has to be giving the city away; that is what we have to understand. They have handed the city of Georgetown over to these people who are running the parking meters.”

De Souza believes that those persons who would have signed the contract and those who reviewed same without objection are also guilty. “It is not a bad deal; it is a criminal deal. We cannot allow it to go forward. This is get them out of here; get the people who signed it out of City Hall because they cannot be allowed to continue selling the city out and the people of this country,” she added.
Similarly, as chants of “no parking meters” “parking meters must go” rang out consistently by the hundreds of protestors, pilot Learie Barclay said the circumstances surrounding the contractual arrangements with SCS are shady. “This contract was entered into under a shady deal; it is a shady contract… laws were breached, there was no procurement, we got the worse possible deal,” he said describing the rates imposed by the M&CC as “impossible”.
“…it stinks let’s go back to the drawing board and have a proper tender for the system,” Barclay demanded. A Regent Street businessman said his business is affected by the parking meters and noted that he has seen a decline in the number of customers visiting his business. “I think that Guyanese have been short-changed in this deal; besides the fact that the contract was done in secret and is giving away all the rights of citizens of Georgetown and its environs, I also think we may not even be ready for parking meters at this time.”
Another anti-parking meter protestor described the deal as “dirty” while noting that it is critical that the parking meters contract be scrapped altogether.
“The people of Georgetown deserve better! We demand better. We voted for change and it is time that we experience that change. We need this contract to be scrapped; we don’t want reduced rates or a renegotiation.”
A businessman who requested anonymity said he does not believe Guyana is ready for the implementation of parking meters. He said the country needs to develop the better infrastructure before parking meters are implemented.
“People can ill afford to pay so much money…in fact people can ill afford to take care of their families and this is an added burden on them. Many people can barely pay an instalment for their cars much less pay to park the cars,” the man stated.
On Tuesday several business owners met with officials from the M&CC and SCS to discuss the parking meter project and it was at that meeting that Director of Business, Amir Oren, told the business persons that the entity is examining several ways in which to amend the project. He said SCS does not intend to make it difficult for businesses here, he said the company can propose a 50 per cent reduction on the new rates for business owners who wish to park all day while the normal rate will apply for vehicles parked for short periods.