A meeting between members of the City Council and the management of Giftland Mall resolved that “action by the Town Clerk in removing the signs were hasty” as it apologized for not being able to contact the Mall prior to the action taken last week.
On February 03, 2017, the City Council sent a delegation of heavily armed guards and workers to the Mall to remove all the parking signage from the access Road & Mall compound. While the management of Giftland had speculated that the action was taken as a backlash to its current campaign of free parking, it was also noted that it was taken to allow Eddie Boyer land development, access. Boyer later clarified that he neither directed the council nor had anything to do with the removal of the signs though they affect him.
At a meeting hosted yesterday afternoon (Friday, February 11, 2017), between Town Clerk, Royston King & the Chief Engineer Colvern Venture and Giftland’s Peter Abdool , Roy Beepat and Dale Beresford, the issue of safety concern for the Mall Clients and the reckless manner in which the residents of the Boyer Development were using the roads was raised.
The Council however accepted that despite its action, it is not in a position to assume the responsibility of upkeeping the access road.
Mr. Abdool explained that due to the fact that the Road was not gazetted that the Mall was responsible for the insurance, street marking, paving, parapets, street lighting and maintenance of the access roadways.
Giftland would continue to maintain monitoring and controlling traffic to ensure that a free flow of traffic is maintained as was being done before last week’s intervention by the City.
Mr Beepat stated that it is always his intention to work peacefully with the City and also regretted, that Mr King and Mr Venture had not been able to resolve this issue prior to the actions last week and hoped that in the future a closer working relationship would develop for any other issues.
