With the Attorney General signaling the Government’s intention to not only take control of Municipal roads, but to also look at taking control of vacant spaces within the city, Mayor of Georgetown, Alfred Mentore, is firing back.

In an interview, the Mayor said the City Council is already engaging its Attorneys to take action against what he considers to be a “hostile takeover” of city assets by the Government.

The Mayor said the Council is preparing to challenge the reclassification of 57 roads in the City of Georgetown to Public Roads, and will also fight off the Government’s move to take control of the old Constabulary Training Complex on Water Street.

Mentore said the Municipality of Georgetown has all the legal documents with regards to ownership and control.

“What I see happening now is that the Government is looking to take over this property, and they are also saying that it is theirs. They have to provide the evidence to the court because we have enough transports for that property – it is more than one transport – and we have those transports in our possession, our lawyers have those transports in their possession and they will be taking that information to the court and we will be seeking an injunctive relief so that we can regain control of our property. And if we feel like, as a council, because this round here is not no gyaffing, this round here, we are not going to have that kind of collaboration that we would have had or that extension of an olive branch to them. We are not going to be having those conversations. Based on the court rulings, even if we have to take it all the way up to the CCJ we will do it,” Mayor Mentore said.

 Mayor Mentore said Central Government never consulted the Council on the issue. He said talks at this stage would be useless.

However, the Mayor acknowledged that the Council could face a hurdle with its decision to move to the Courts.

“Simple thing like this matter that we have to deal with at the Court, the responsibility of the Town Clerk is to sue or we could be sued through the Town Clerk. This matter even though we have this matter of the streets, and we have this matter of the building, at the end of the day the Town Clerk is the custodian of the Council’s assets. So, while we at the level of the extraordinary meeting, speaking about this issue, and suggesting that we would go to court, I first have to put it to the Town Clerk to sign the instructions to court to court. And God forbid she refuses because she get call from the top, that will also be another problem,” the City Mayor said.

The Government has accused the Municipality of Georgetown of neglecting its duties.

Minister of Local Government, Priya Manickchand, has stated that the Government’s plan is to transform Georgetown into a clean city, with green creation spaces and other facilities.

The Mayor said he suspects that there is a political motive behind the takeover action by the Government.

“The whole idea is to try to make the City look back. Why they didn’t do the same thing in some other town that they have control over. Don’t they build roads in those towns? Yes, they do build roads. They build roads, the build highways, they build byways but have you seen them went to assume those roads? No, they haven’t done that. It is obviously a political ploy, a political ploy to undermine the city, a political ploy to start us even further by not giving us any resources to deal with that, and starve us so we are not able to treat with our vendors so that we benefit from,” Mayor Mentore said.

The City Mayor has vowed to push back against the Government’s attempt to wrest control of the city’s assets. He said citizens need to also have their voices heard.

Related posts:

Edghill defends Government’s takeover of 22 City Streets; Dismisses City Council’s protest City Council denounces Government’s “hostile takeover” of 22 City streets; PPP Councilors boycott emergency meeting Local Government Minister and City Mayor clash over waiver on interest for OneComm outstanding Rates City Mayor defends decision to apply institutional tax rate to political parties