–Mayor puts to rest Bel Air Park playground claims

GEORGETOWN Mayor Patricia Chase-Green has declared that nothing the Mayor and City Council (M&CC) did relating to the now controversial Bel Air Park Playground was ever shrouded in secrecy.

At Monday’s statutory meeting, she reminded councillors that it was the Investment and Development Committee that had brought this matter to the Council.       The Council, she recalled, subsequently granted its approval, subject to greenlight from the Central Housing and Planning Authority, among other agencies.

Town Clerk Royston King similarly commented that the Council had agreed in principle that the Bel Air Park land be reviewed and repossessed. Since that time, the matter has attracted the attention of the court, and an order has been issued. However, King said City Hall’s lawyers are now studying the matter, and that the Council’s intentions were in keeping with the Municipal District and Council Act.

So far, King said, works have started on clearing the land and digging the drains. Over-hanging trees are being dealt with, along with garbage pile up. One person has even lighted a fire to burn refuse, King disclosed. “We want to fence it and keep it in good order,” he said.

Councillor Alfred Mentore stood up to say that as the constituency representative, he should have been informed about the works that the City Council is currently undertaking.
He said that in this way, he could have been in a position to “appease” all those residents who have been contacting him, thinking that the works were being done by a private developer.

Mentore reasoned that even though King may have had good intentions, the manner in which he went about it can backfire and cause the City Council harm.  The Mayor said with the feedback Mentore  received from his constituency, he should have made contact with the Town Clerk to clarify matters.

She reminded that the land is owned by the M&CC, and that the land was there all along and no one was doing anything with it.  “I am not aware that anyone by the name of Taljit is doing any work there,” the Mayor stated.

Terrence Taljit is a local housing developer whom the City Council was allegedly in negotiations with to transfer the land to him despite a restriction on the transport of the property for use as a playground and for other community purposes only.

Justice Gino Persaud earlier this month handed down a decision that blocks the M&CC’s intention to sell or lease the reserved community land to a private developer.

The application was filed in 2017 by lawyer Devindra Kissoon, a resident of Bel Air Park.Kissoon, a founding partner of London House Chambers, sued the M&CC and Central Housing and Planning for seeking to prohibit the development of a community reserve property for the purpose of housing.