–for disabling East Coast Public Road’s security feature to accommodate customer parking
THE Ministry of Public Infrastructure is in the process of initiating a process that could possibly see charges being brought against an East Coast Demerara businessman who, by way of an agent of his, destroyed a section of the public road next door to his business establishment.
On Thursday, a worker who claimed to have been employed by the owner of Best Buy Variety Store at Non-Pareil to break off the security feature along the roadway in order to make provision for persons with vehicles coming to do business to be able to park.
The security feature was part of the road’s design, and was eventually constructed when the East Coast highway expansion drive between Better Hope and Belfield was done by the Chinese. When contacted in relation to the breakage, the businessman told a reporter that he indeed ordered the breakage of the road’s security feature. The workman who spoke with the reporter prior to that indicated that he was informed by the businessman that he, the businessman, was given permission by the area’s Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC) to destroy the security feature.
However, when checks were made, the NDC denied those claims, saying that it ever gave any such permission to damage the public infrastructure. Armed with the truth of the matter, the reporter then contacted the businessman again, who claimed that he did not know it was that serious, and that all he was doing was breaking off the excess concrete from the roadway. It should be noted that when the highway was widened, the feature was put in place to separate moving vehicles from pedestrians and pedal cyclists. Apart from that, business premises and entrance to gaps were free of the feature, as provision was made for them to have vehicular access to their premises. Where the breakage was being done on Thursday was not in front of the businessman’s premises, but rather that of a neighbouring property, the owner of which died some time ago during a fire.
