THE Central Housing and Planning Authority (CHPA) wants to hand over Constituencies Five and Six (Cummings Lodge to Sophia) to the Mayor and City Council (M&CC) before the end of this year.

Chief Executive Officer of CHPA, Lelon Saul, would not state an exact time but he told the Guyana Chronicle, in an invited comment, that they are currently working out arrangements to make the handing over possible.
“What we’re doing presently is going through the area and doing an inventory of the roads, etc. The infrastructure in Sophia is slated to be upgraded under the IDB reformulated loan,” Saul said, adding that quite a few of the roads, open spaces and recreational areas will be upgraded.

Even after the handing over, Saul said the CHPA will endeavour to ensure that the infrastructure is up to standard, and will continue to finance the upgrading.
Currently, the Sophia area is not benefitting from any of the services provided by the M&CC and hence for years, basic amenities such as water and electricity could not be extended to residents of North Pattensen, North Sophia, and Block ‘R’ Extension, among other communities.

The CHPA had ideally wanted to hand over the communities on December 17, 2017, but was unsuccessful in its attempt.
Town Clerk Royston King had made a call for the process to be expedited so that the community can benefit from vital municipal services.

“At the moment, it is out of the curtilage of the Council. It’s a large community; it’s a valuable community, and we need to move ahead and have it brought under the careful watch and service of the M&CC,” King had said.
Mayor Patricia Chase-Green had supported King’s argument, saying that Sophia has three representatives on the Council, and hence some sort of assistance ought to be granted the community.

“Sophia has three representatives in this Council, and I know they will be looking forward to some assistance from us,” she said, adding: “It’s not fair to say it’s off limits; we have to take responsibility of it, security-wise.”
Meanwhile, residents have to foot the bill for everything, including garbage disposal, which can cost as much as $500 each week.

But they have had to live with these and other ill conditions, as they are so often reminded that they are just squatters. The communities were not started as structured or regularised areas, and so the residents have to fend for themselves in every instance.

President David Granger had signalled his interest in having the community upgraded to the point that it can be handed over to the M&CC.

Only three of the eight communities in Constituency Five fall under the purview of the M&CC, namely Bel Air, Turkeyen and Liliendaal. The others are North Pattenson, North Sophia, ‘B’ Field, ‘A’ Field, Plum Park, and Farmer’s Field.
In the areas mentioned earlier, theft of electricity and water have become major concerns for the authorities.

Squatting
Saul said the immediate desire of the CHPA is to address squatting in critical areas but he noted that this will take time. “We have already drafted a plan to address squatting. What we’re waiting on is the vesting of the lands to us so we can address the issue. We have already identified source of funding, so at this moment we are waiting on the release of the lands to CHPA.”

According to Saul, areas for relocation have already been identified. “We are not going to put all the squatters in one area, but they would be dispersed over several localities. Ideally, we were hoping that by this time we would’ve already developed an area and some of the squatters would’ve been relocated. Unfortunately, that did not happen.”
Saul said he is still optimistic that by August this year, development of a particular area can commence.