–on Bel Air Park Playground

THE Mayor and City Council (M&CC) has filed an appeal against Justice Gino Persaud’s recent ruling on the controversial Bel Air Park Playground.

The ruling at reference has blocked the municipality from selling or leasing the reserved community lands to a private developer.    Furthermore, all 30 City Councillors were served with a ‘Cease and desist’ court order, threatening fines and imprisonment if they refuse to desist from using the playground for anything other than for community purposes.

“The Orders granted sought to affect the Council’s ability to deal with the land whilst simultaneously imposing a burden on the Council to maintain the land for the benefit of the applicant (Devindra Kissoon) and others,” the M&CC says in its appeal against the ruling.  According to the document, “The Council has been advised by its Attorney-at-Law, Mr. Yearwood, and verily believes that the application made and the orders granted infringe the Council’s right under Article 142 (1) of the Constitution of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana to protection from deprivation of property.”

The application was filed by Bel Air Park resident and founding partner of London House Chambers, Devindra Kissoon, and the High Court has since restrained City  Councillors from “using, leasing, transferring, assigning, conveying, licensing, selling, encumbering, dealing or permitting the use of the property for the purpose of building residential homes or otherwise, other than for community purposes.”

As Deputy Mayor Lionel Jaikarran had told the Chronicle following the issuance of the order: “We’re all going to jail if we do not desist. “I’m not going to jail for the Council or for the Town Clerk. “While I’m committed to serving the citizens of Georgetown, I have to draw the line at the thought of imprisonment.

I like being the Deputy Mayor, but I’m too old to do time for things I know nothing about.”  Mayor Patricia Chase-Green has since noted that nothing the M&CC did relating to the playground was ever shrouded in secrecy.

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 had similarly commented that the Council had agreed in principle that the Bel Air Park land be reviewed and repossessed.

Councillor Alfred Mentore had said 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 do the City Council more harm than good.