Dear Editor,

THE downtown area of Georgetown has begun to breathe again with the suspension of the unscrupulous parking meter initiative that was instituted by Smart City Solutions, under the auspices of the Mayor and Councillors of the City of Georgetown. Businesses in the area are slowly coming back to life after the Council’s death blow, but will need much more time to recover from that albatross that was placed around the necks of the citizens. Shoppers are once again able to browse stores at their own pace, without worrying about the ticking meter.

However, the recent declaration by Mayor Patricia Chase-Green that she is in full support of the government’s suspension of the parking meter project for the next three months, and that Communities Minister, Ronald Bulkan, had acted within his right, is quite peculiar coming from her.

The position taken by the ‘Fantastic Four’, who purportedly obtained legal advice to support their position, suggests otherwise. In fact their standpoint is that the Municipal and District Councils Act “does not permit the Honourable Minister to direct the Council to suspend any contract or by-laws enacted by it”.

So it is either she did not get the memo, or they have been forced to take a complete roundabout. But what the Minister, the Mayor and the Town Clerk need to understand is that the citizens and visitors to Georgetown are simply not prepared to accept Smart City Solutions in any shape or form. Therefore bringing a new iteration of the contract, no matter how altered it is, just is not going to work. I don’t think the folks at City Hall are listening. The concern is the crooked way the process started. There has to be a new and proper process of advertising and tendering for the contract, which would allow local companies to bid, there has to be proper consultation and stakeholder involvement, but first of all Council’s books have to be audited and their accounts qualified to determine whether indeed there is a need for such an initiative.
Regards
Mark Roopan