City Hall Parking meter negotiating team engages members of the public

Weeks after hundreds of citizens blocked Regent Street to protest the parking meter project, the Parking Meter Negotiating team, led by Councillor Malcolm Ferreira, kicked off today’s public consultation with one citizen in attendance.

Ferreira was not bothered by the poor turnout on day three of the consultations as he anticipated that other persons would join the sessions at a later time.

But up to one hour after the scheduled start of the discussion, the Councillors were forced to break as they awaited the arrival of more persons.

When asked by the media about the poor turnout, Ferreira said he was not bothered. He reflected on the last two days and related that he was pleased with the insight given by the lone participant, Don Singh.

“The feedback so far has been wonderful and we want to thank all those who came out to share and we got insight into how residents and drivers feel,” he said.

Singh in his presentation to the team paused to decry the poor turnout at the forum and said he was disappointed that more citizens were not present.

He agreed that there was a need for structured parking in the city, whether paid or unpaid.

During the short discussion with Mr. Singh the negotiating team was asked to consider a different system for residential zones from commercial zones and also to review the current 20-year life of the contract.

Mr. Singh who resides in Constituency One was also concerned that the parking spaces were too small some models of vehicles, that there is no unpaid parking outside of schools and other public buildings.

He also asked the team to assess the behaviour of those tasked with enforcing the bylaws as he levelled claims of aggression, intimidation and menacing behaviour.

Singh believes too that alternatives to a citizen paying the premium price for parking should also be considered.

After the team exhausted questions related to the parking meters they proceeded to engage Singh on wider development recommendations for the city of Georgetown.