Dear Editor,
It seems that a vast majority of the ratepayers living in the NDC district of LBI/Better Hope on the East Coast of Demerara are dissatisfied and peeved about the services they are receiving from that inefficient council.
Regular rubbish collection is now non-available despite the fact that we are constantly being harassed to pay our rates and taxes on time. The council had its own tractor and trailer which is now parked permanently at the residence of a former senior official’s relative, who claims ownership of it and uses it for his own purposes.
The drainage system is very poor and we do suffer a lot when it rains. As a result of the floods we experienced here, our properties suffered structural damage. The streets and pathways are also crumbling and damaged, and represent a challenge for senior citizens and younger children.
We have also to put up with several herds of roaming cattle which are daily a threat to children and senior adults. Pigs also roam here carte blanche, damaging our properties.
The official who is responsible for rubbish collection now informs ratepayers that they should dispose of their rubbish by paying private collectors who come around whenever they want to and charge a hefty fee for their service. Take it at a high fee or leave it, is the mindset now.
For the past four or five months the collection of garbage in Success and Chateau Margot villages on the East Coast Demerara, is non-existent. When we asked officials at the NDC office at Better Hope about rubbish collection, stray animals and also drainage, they rudely informed us that that is not their responsibility and that we must find the official who is responsible and inform him, as he is paid to do that service.
It is our hope that tax and ratepayers here would give the incumbent officials and the NDC a bloody nose come May 11, when they would be at the polls to decide this country’s future.
Yours faithfully,
(Name and address provided)
