An attempt by the city to break down a snackette along the Aubrey Barker Road Embankment failed yesterday after a two-hour stand-off saw the owner getting under his vehicle to stop the exercise.
Over 10 members of the Guyana Police Force and city police with weapons drawn were sent around 2 pm to pave the way for the demolishing of the Goldenapple Snackette.
A crowd gathered as Julius Belgrave refused to move his vehicle from the cement bridge that he constructed leading to his snackette and a plot of the embankment at the head of Gaulding Place, South Ruimveldt Gardens.
Police and city employees including City Engineer Colvern Venture were on hand to try to remove Belgrave and to break down his bridge with a jackhammer on orders from the Town Clerk.
Belgrave told Stabroek News that this is not the first time that the city has tried to intimidate him and he had already filed paperwork to acquire the rights to the land. He said that he had been on the land for 12 years and that he has slowly developed it, even putting down a foundation to construct a permanent residence.
Belgrave said that over five years ago he filed paperwork with the city of Georgetown to acquire the land rights and it was only last year that he found out the land actually belonged to the Guyana government. He said that when he found that out he began looking into legally acquiring the land from the rightful place, going to the Deeds Registry since last year.
At approximately 2:00pm city employees arrived with an excavator, a jackhammer, portable generator and a tractor to dismantle Belgrave’s snackette and destroy the bridge. He said that this was not the first time that the city had come noting that previously in December they had turned up and dismantled a fence and a shed. He said that “they have never brought me any piece of paper saying look at this this is why you can’t be here.”
He told Stabroek News that the adjacent location to him was recently under construction with a large cement bridge being constructed. He said that since the adjacent area was being developed the city has become more aggressive in their campaign against him. Belgrave stated that “they wait till I developed this land I am making an honest, decent living and they want to break it down”. He continued that he has been working to acquire the land legally.
Stabroek News spoke with Venture who noted that the Public Works Ministry loaned the portable generator and the jackhammer, but it was the city that was attempting to dismantle the structures. He noted that any further clarification on why Belgrave’s property was being destroyed would need to be sought from Town Clerk Carol Sooba. Stabroek News was unable to make contact with Sooba up to press time.
Onlookers and residents of the area recalled that Belgrave has been in the area for years and it wasn’t until the adjacent construction began that the city took notice. One resident told Stabroek News that in fact the adjacent site had people on it up until the police began to arrive. She said that the police have never spoken to any of the other persons building on the embankment, only Belgrave. This publication drove the breadth of Aubrey Barker Road and various small businesses and houses lined the embankment. There was new construction as well as hidden wooden homes in some areas that have remained untouched by the city.
Belgrave’s property was eventually left alone, with police and city workers clearing the vicinity at approximately 4:00pm.
