THE Mayor and City Council (M&CC) of Georgetown will soon meet with owners and operators of heavy-duty vehicles to discuss how they can maintain roads collectively.
According to a press statement from the M&CC, the council’s main objective is to solicit the assistance of those operators to assist with the maintenance of existing roads and connected facilities.

Operators who use the vehicles to haul goods and other commodities in and beyond the city will be approached first.

“Heavy-duty single axel trucks are contributing to road fatigue, stress and the destruction of council roads in many parts of the city. Whilst the council is responsible under the law to maintain new ones, it does not have the wherewithal to fulfil this obligation,” the statement read.

The council’s “narrow revenue base” coupled with the ‘unwillingness’ of some property owners to pay their rates, restrict the council’s ability to repair and maintain roads.
In the meantime, owners and operators of heavy-duty vehicles continue to use many of those broken and poorly maintained roads to haul tons of commodities to businesses.
“Of greater concern to the council is the fact that many of those roads are unsafe and facilitate accidents,” said the M&CC.

The council believes it is important and necessary that owners and operators of heavy-duty vehicles meet with the M&CC and agree to make a contribution to the repair and maintenance of those facilities.

Over the next two weeks, the council will engage all such owners and operators in special sessions to come to an agreement on the way forward.
In addition, the council is contemplating an approach to benefit from licensing of vehicles in the city.

The Georgetown municipality believes that its statutory responsibilities with respect to roads must also have a corresponding right to access a percentage of the revenue obtained through licensing of vehicles to use council roads and all connected facilities.