Georgetown: Communities Minister Ronald Bulkan on Monday approved the parking meter by-laws by affixing his signature to them, and, as promised, immediately dispatched the document to Mayor Patricia Chase-Green.At the time of the document’s arrival at City Hall, Chase-Green was chairing the fortnightly statutory meeting,which she asked Deputy Mayor Sherod Duncan to take over while she received the signed by-laws.
Incidentally, the deputy mayor, mere hours before the statutory meeting, protested the parking meter project outside of the Bishops’High School and the Ptolemy Reid Rehabilitation Centre on Carmichael Street.
That the by-laws have been signed by the Minister of Communities means that as of today, motorists wishing to park their vehicles in Georgetown will be required to pay via the meters.
The official use of the meters had been set for last Monday, but Minister Bulkan had said that he needed until this Monday to be able to review the by-laws before approving them.
As late as last Saturday afternoon, Smart City Solutions (SCS), the company responsible for implementing the new system, had no idea that the minister had not yet signed the by-laws, and as such told this newspaper that the project was ready to be officially rolled out on Monday.
Asked why the City Council only submitted the by-laws to the minister on Friday, Town Clerk Royston King told the Guyana Chronicle before Monday’s statutory meeting that there were certain steps that had to be followed before that could have been done.
Said he: “The Council operates based on systems, procedures and laws. For example, the law said that the Council should allow 14 days for public inspection; for public scrutiny, public discussion on the by-laws before it is submitted to the minister for final approval.
“We reached out to the public, and we went beyond the 14 days; we went 18 days. And that is why the by-laws were submitted to the minister when they were submitted. Not because the Council adopted and approved the by-laws means you could have just sent it off to the minister; it had other steps that had to be followed, and other certificates that had to be presented to the minister by the town clerk. And those steps were faithfully followed. I adhere strictly to the laws; and that is what I did.”
He said he did not see it as an embarrassment to the Council that the project could not start on Monday, but saw it as part of a process that was followed.
With regards to the concerns raised by Minister Bulkan relating to meter spots in front of bus stops and so forth, King said those issues are currenting engaging the City Council’s active attention.
Meanwhile, prepaid parking cards will be available at over 100 places, including pharmacies, gas stations, MoneyGram offices, post offices and the City Hall itself. The intention is for them to become as available as phone cards are.
The cards will be available in $500, $2,500, $5,000 and $10,000 denominations. The $5000 card will carry a one-hour free parking bonus, and the $10,000 card will carry a two-and-a-half hours free parking.
As SCS owner, Amir Oren recently explained to the Guyana Chronicle:
“Right now, we are introducing disposable cards. In a month or two, we will introduce rechargeable cards, so that people will be able to carry one card as they go, and which someone can top-up with any amount.
“And then we will introduce an application, which is a mobile payment, which allows you to have a balance on your card and even pay for a friend.”
The application has already been developed, but the officials said they prefer to introduce one method at a time so as not to overwhelm users. The application will be used in a similar way persons use their phones to borrow credit, check their balances, and so forth, and it will not replace payments via the actual meters; it will just be another option for payment.
Meanwhile, SCS has said that they have already filed an application for VAT to be excluded from parking costs, which, if approved, will see no VAT being added to the $50 per rotation (15 minutes).
The meters will function from Monday to Saturday from 07:00hrs to 19:00hrs, and motorists will not have to pay on Sundays and holidays.
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