–mayor says matter still under discussion

GEORGETOWN Mayor Patricia Chase-Green has corrected statements made by City Hall’s Director of Solid Waste Management, Walter Narine that citizens’ garbage will not be picked up if they fail to pay the $200 fee.

“That’s not the message that we want to get out there. We’re only consulting at the moment; nothing is written in stone,” said Chase-Green at Monday’s statutory meeting.
Although there have been reports that some trucks have already started to charge for collection, the Mayor clarified that the Council has not yet agreed for any payments so far.

“This message did not originate from the City Council. If that’s the opinion of an officer, it’s not of the Council. We couldn’t say that at all, because there would be other implications,” Town Clerk Royston King responded.

At a public consultation recently to discuss the implementation of the garbage collection fee, Narine was quoted in some quarters as saying: “In terms of you paying and your neighbour is not paying, we have the by-laws coming on stream where we are going to put everybody on board. We will not be collecting garbage from those households if they did not remit that payment to Council, and all payments to Council will be done at Council; not on the streets or any refuse collector or any revenue collector.”

He was also quoted as saying that once residents support the initiative and the systems are put in place to collect the fees, those who do not pay would be prosecuted. “We’ll have bylaws to govern every household. Once this is on board, every household will have to pay, or they will be fined and summoned to court,” Narine reportedly said.

At the time, the Town Clerk had told the Guyana Chronicle that within the first quarter of this year, City Hall will be moving to charge residents a fee for the collection and disposal of their household waste.

“We are now moving to ask residents in local communities to help us, as we subsidise the collection of waste by paying a small fee. I understand that they are looking at perhaps $200 a barrel,” he said, adding that the figure at reference was still within the realm of discussion within the Council’s Finance Committee.

While the modalities are still being worked out, King said residents will be required to visit the Treasury’s Department and pay the fee at the same time as they would pay their rates and taxes.

King said that the M&CC will give appropriate notification, and will also have consultations.