The Transport and Harbours Department says it has been successful in removing vendors from encroaching on government reserves along the East Coast and East Bank and that the exercise is being done in order to ensure public safety.

According to the Government Information Agency (GINA) Minister Robeson Benn said significant progress has been made in relocating vendors from the Mon Repos market area and the Soesdyke junction though “there are still some issues remaining in both areas.”

Benn said too more effort will be made in order to remove vendors occupying East Bank parapets and from unloading vehicles along roadways.

“It is unsafe and poses a risk to the travelling public and also to the owners and operators and employees who are doing that trade,” he said. As regard areas in the city where vendors use spaces provided for vending as storage space while continuing to ply their trade on pavements, Benn said government made a significant investment to acquire the land which has been called the “new vendors mall” and it remains about 65% unoccupied.

In response to queries about the Georgetown Development Plan, the minister said government is willing to implement it but financing has to be made available since the plots of land identified to be used as parks and for other public uses are privately owned.
He said too access to many of the spaces are blocked by businesses. “The larger solutions are there but we have to have an approach,” he said.

Meanwhile, Benn said Guyana’s record on traffic safety is among the lowest worldwide and as such the government has to remain “intimately” involved. He said too “People are on the road, congesting the traffic, violating the by-laws of the City under the very nose of City Hall and nothing is being done.” In light of this, the minister said steps are being taken to ease the congestion on the roadways.

He also called on the local government bodies to support government efforts to keep the reserves clear after the utility companies complained that several of their development projects were being hindered due to illegal structures on the reserves.