TOWN Clerk Royston King has urged Georgetown Mayor, Patricia Chase-Green, to urgently pursue the container fee issue with the relevant authorities so that the $5000 being charged currently for each container leaving the wharf can be increased to a more reasonable amount.  At the municipality’s fortnightly statutory meeting at City Hall on Monday, King observed that since the $5000 was agreed to be charged in the interim, there has been no movement with the issue. “And we don’t want the interim to become the permanent,” he said.

“We need to settle this issue so we can get a definite figure. $5000 is not enough; we’re denying shippers the opportunity to make their full contribution to the city,” he added.   The Mayor and City Council (M&CC) had said in the past that it wants $8,000 in fees for a 20-foot container, and $10,000 for 40 or 45-foot ones. These new figures were part of a proposal being mulled by a tripartite committee to look into the matter. The M&CC, the government, and the Private Sector Commission (PSC) had agreed to get together to resolve the contentious issue.

Councillor Alfred Mentore had told fellow councillors that the new amounts being requested by the M&CC are fair and reasonable. Councillor Malcolm Ferreira, however, voiced his disapproval of the current amount in place for those in breach of the obligation to move their containers within a stipulated time. He had urged the Council to increase the amount from $2,500.  “I believe that’s low; it should be $8,000 and $10,000.

People have to understand that a penalty is a penalty; it’s nothing you can just pick up US$12 or US$50 and pay off. “They (businesses) could put it (their containers) on the road for 10 days and pull out $25,000 out their pocket easy, because they have $50M worth in the container,” he said to councillors who were evidently in agreement. City Hall had decided to implement a $25,000 container fee, but this attracted much flak from members of the business community and the PSC.

Some businessmen had also resorted to the courts, accusing the M&CC of illegally implementing such a fee. And, the courts had ruled in favour of the businessmen. City Hall has stressed, though, that money is needed to repair roads which the containers have been damaging over the years.