–says area earmarked for Qatari hotel owned by the government

CITY Engineer Colvern Venture, during a statutory meeting of the City Council on Monday, clarified that the transport which was recently circulated by the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU)-led Mayor and City Council does not cover lands at Carifesta Avenue, where a new hotel project is being pursued by Qatari developers.

Venture addressed the issue after the Mayor Alfred Mentore and councillors enquired about issues surrounding a previously requested cease order which was expected to be dispatched to the developers.

The City Engineer told the council that he had prepared the cease order, but when he went to serve the said order there was no one occupying or operating at the location, and as such the order was not served.

While noting that this order was addressed to the owner and occupier, he wrote to the Town Clerk and requested the transport to verify the land’s owners.

“As such, because of the annotations that were faded on the transport, some research was done and it was noted that the transport which the council would have [sic] circulated claiming ownership of that particular plot of land, it does not speak to that,” he said.

He went on to add that the transport that was circulated at the Council meeting speaks to a plot of land that is bordered by the canal immediately south of Queens College and other lands elsewhere.

Despite this conclusion by one of the council’s technical experts, Mentore maintained that the matter would most likely have to be “tested” in the court.

Last month, the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission (GLSC) cleared the air and provided a lengthy statement in relation to ownership of the land.

In that statement, the GLSC said that the only portion of land that the City Council held in the area north of Carifesta Avenue was a dam between GT&T and the Saint Stanislaus ground called Wireless Road, which was leased to a private citizen for commercial purposes by the council.

The release said: “It can be garnered that the City Council does not clearly know what they own. The GLSC has a substantial amount of historical records that shows its control of those lands for well over 100 years. At no time during this period has there been any interference by the council as to the ownership of the said lands.”

In response to reports that distorted the facts related to this issue, Venture, in a press statement on Tuesday, referenced some of the information he found while conducting his research:
1. The ownership document (Transport #337 of 1887) indicates that the council owns three portions of land, which is approximately 43 acres and is bordered by the drainage canal immediately south of Queens College, Camp Road, Cummings Canal and the J.P Latchhman Singh Road.

2. From survey plans I have perused, the area mentioned above is described as Non-Pareil Park, being a portion of Plantation Thomas.

3. The annotations on the Transport (#337 of 1887) have indicated that the council, over the years, issued several leases for portions of its land to various non-governmental organisations such as the Critchlow Labour College, the Muslim Youth Organisation, the Guyana Industrial Training Centre (GITC), etc.

4. Survey plans obtained from the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission show that, there were many surveys done by various Sworn Land Surveyors, within the area mentioned at no.1 and references were to Transport #337 of 1887.

5. My research also revealed that the plot of land to which the Mayor referred, at the Statutory Meeting held on February 26, 2024, is owned by the Government of Guyana under Transport # 235 of 1863.

“I hasten to emphasise that as City Engineer of the City of Georgetown, it has never been my practice or intention to derail any company or foreign investors from investing in the city or the country as a whole. I am always ready and willing to work with all stakeholders to ensure that our city, and by extension our country, Guyana, develop[sic],” Venture said.