MOTORISTS on Monday continued their boycott of metered-parking in Georgetown as the oversight bodies continued with the project’s implementation. Since being enforced on January 24, 2017, motorists have largely refused to park in metered zones — managed by the Mayor and City Council (M&CC) of Georgetown and Smart City Solutions (SCS) — in protest of what they describe as a far from transparent project.
And those efforts to boycott the metered zones continued on Monday, after a brief interruption. A visit to several highly commercialised areas in central Georgetown where there is usually a heavy concentration of traffic, revealed streets free of parked vehicles.
A few weeks ago, anti-parking meter advocates had mobilised themselves and formed the Movement Against Parking Meters (MAPM) which staged several mass protests against the parking meters. Having generated traction, central government intervened and requested that City Council adjust the rates which at that time was $58 for 15 minutes.
During that period of consultations for new fees, the project was put on hold, allowing vehicles to be parked without having to pay. During that time also, two court orders were filed against city Mayor Patricia Chase-Green, Town Clerk Royston King and Minister of Communities, Ronald Bulkan, requesting them to show why the project should not be scrapped.

Despite these two pending court orders however, the mayor last week announced that implementation of the project will continue from Monday. “As of Monday next, we will resume implementation of the parking meter project,” the mayor said on Thursday at a press conference. She justified this position, reasoning that, “There is not an injunction that stops us from operating.”
It has not been made clear if a resumption of implementation means that persons who are non-compliant with the by-laws will be penalised as is stipulated.
Mayor Chase-Green did say however that, “Nobody said we’re starting back clamping on Monday,” while Town Clerk Royston King suggested that the M&CC will be renewing its operations, which include tools available to them for non-compliance of the by-laws.
The Movement Against Parking Meters (MAPM) upon hearing this, indicated that a court order will be filed against the M&CC should the local government body decide to continue implementation of the project.
Speaking on behalf of the movement at a town hall meeting on Saturday at St Stanislaus College, Attorney Pauline Chase said that “… should Smart City Solutions [and the M&CC] take that step on Monday, we will see an application being moved to the court for contempt.”
However, no such application was made on Monday up to press time. And as a form of resistance, motorists on Monday parked in areas which were not metered parking zones. The MGPM is maintaining its call for a complete revocation of the contract which was signed between SCS and the City Council. Some City Councillors, on behalf of whom the contract was signed, including Deputy Mayor- elect, Lionel Jaikaran, has said that to date, they have not seen the contract.