According to the management of Giftland Mall, at 12.00 pm today, the City Council sent a delegation of heavily armed guards and workers to the Mall to “unlawfully” remove all the parking signage from the access Road & Mall compound.
In a statement on Friday afternoon, it was noted that this was done without prior notice and has been described as “lawlessness” by the company.
All signs including Diplomatic Parking, car park parking signage and barriers of the Mall “are the property of the Giftland Mall”.
The Management of the Mall noted that this action was taken to allow Eddie Boyer, Chairman of National Hardware, development access.
“There has been ongoing discussion with the City concerning issues as it relates to the access to the Boyer Land Development, which is the root cause of this action , this act which should have been directed and coordinated with the Local police station was unilateral, boycotting protocol and without any attempted negotiations” the statement added.
It went on to state that the Mall “Management views this hostile action by the Council as anti-business…this threatens the Mall wellbeing due to the heavy traffic congestions which are experienced daily, the removal of these road signage which have all been funded by Giftland Mall, and without which will lead to chaos during the peak traffic periods.”
It was clarified that the access road was built and paid for by Giftland with the exception of 1 1/2 ” of asphalt surfacing from the Ministry of Public Works, and it has not been Gazetted as being part of any Government property.
The Mall is, therefore putting the City Council on notice that these actions would be closely monitored in regards to law abiding corporate Business operating in Guyana and the heavy-handed manner in which the agenda on certain persons are being carried out.
It is strongly suspecting that this is a backlash also to its current campaign of free parking, which may not be sitting well with the architects of the failed Car Parking Meters in the Capital.