The Government of Guyana through the Ministry of Public Works has quietly wrested away a total of 22 streets in the City of Georgetown from under the control of the Georgetown City Council, making them all Public Roads and thereby falling directly under the Public Works Ministry.

The move was gazetted as Ministerial Orders on the 20th March 2026 by the Minister of Public Works under the Roads Act.

The listed Public Roads now under Public Works Ministry control are Cowan Street, New Market Street, Middle Street, Aubrey Barker Road, Vlissingen Road, Cane View Avenue, Garnett Street, D’andrade Street, Da Silva Street, Lamaha Street, Dennis Street, Eastern Highway, Sandy Babb Street, Albert Street, Cummings Street, Regent Street, Robb Street, Charlotte Street, America Street, Camp Street, East Street and Hadfield Street Public Roads.

Attorney-at-law Brenden Glasford in a post on his www.sidebargy.com website noted that the move has effectively removed the listed streets and their parapets from Municipal control to Government of Guyana control with the stroke of a pen.

It was explained that for businesses, it now means that issues like the placement of billboards, the rental of parapets, permission for use of parapets for events along the named roadways will now fall directly under the control of the Public Works Ministry rather than the Georgetown City Council.

The Georgetown City Council has depended on the rental of spaces along many of the city streets for the placement of billboards, and in some cases temporary vending when national events are being celebrated.

Contacted for a comment on the move this morning, City Mayor Alfred Mentore said he was totally unaware of the move by the Ministry of Public Works and is surprised by it, especially since there were no consultations and it will affect the asset register of the Council.

“This will affect or impair the Asset Register of the Council and this should have been discussed with us so that we could have been able to notify the Auditor General about this as well, because it is not only for us, it is also about how it will affect another agency”, Mayor Mentore said.

The Mayor said while this current Government and other previous Governments have highlighted rehabilitation and other works that they would do on city streets, those works have never been limited to the Georgetown municipality. He said similar works have been done in other towns and communities across the country.

The Mayor said now that the Government’s move has been brought to his attention, he will look into it urgently and raise it with other stakeholders since there was no consultation at all on the issue, and it will affect the Council and other sister agencies.

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