HIGH Court Judge Jo-Ann Barlow on Tuesday ordered the City Engineer to take the necessary steps to remove all vehicles, carts, trays, barrels and boxes that are in front of Collections Boutique and Centre at 27 Water Street in downtown Georgetown.

This is according to Attorney-at-Law Siand Dhurjon, who filed the case on behalf of Dian Balram, the store’s owner.

Last November, Balram had filed a Fixed Date Application against the City Engineer and the Mayor & City Council (M&CC) through the Town Clerk.

Justice Barlow has granted a court order for the City Engineer to remove all encumbrances on the pavements, streets and footpaths in the vicinity of the store.

According to Dhurjon, the court agreed with his submission that By-law 10 of the City Government By-Laws, made under the Municipal and District Councils Act, Cap.28:01, places a statutory duty on the City Engineer to ensure that the pavements, streets, parapets, and footpaths of the city of Georgetown are not encumbered by persons placing things on them.

He added that the court has agreed that the law made no distinction between fixed or mobile things, and requires the pavements, streets, footpaths of the City to be unencumbered.

Balram, in her affidavit, said that vendors were impeding and preventing her access to her premises to an unacceptable extent by placing their structures, stalls, stands, boxes, goods and other things on the pavements, streets and footpaths in front of her premises.

“I am usually unable to drive my vehicle into my said premises in the afternoons. Often, customers would come to pick up goods, and would be unable to make use of the driveway and entryway for ingress and egress. The same would occur when deliveries are made,” Balram said in her affidavit.

She also explained that this is a problem she has been having for years, and eventually wrote the City Council and Engineer letters on many occasions, and even visited the M&CC three times in 2021, all to no avail.

According to Dhurjon, the respondents’ attorney, Darren Wade, stated that when he and staff of the City Council visited the premises they found no one to be blocking Balram’s Boutique.

“Mr Wade stated that the City Council was doing all that they could to clear up the area. However, an officer of the City Council appeared for the benefit of the Court, and stated that, indeed, vendors were blocking the pavement and accessways to Collections Boutique, and that the City Council had not even sat to consider the issue raised by Ms. Balram in her lawsuit in the nearly three months since it was filed,” Dhurjon said.

The attorney added that the lawsuit was served on an individual known as “Bucky”, who operated a fixed stall in front of Collections Boutique, and she was soon after removed.

“However, Mr. Wade submitted to the court that the City Council had no obligation, under law, to remove vehicles, carts, stalls, and other ‘mobile things’ which could be moved around,” the attorney disclosed.