Businessman calls for more Police presence after restaurant vandalised at seawalls

Local restaurant owner, Collin Andrews is counting his losses after someone burnt and vandalised his outdoor restaurant at the weekend.

Andrews and his wife operate the Tocuma Indigenous Restaurant along the Georgetown Seawalls. While nothing was stolen, Andrews is calling for improved security along the seawalls, noting that there are many reports of vandalism, robbery, and theft in the area.

“This is just one of the many incidents. They can establish cameras along the seawalls. They have cameras at the head of Camp Street and the roundabout but not in between,” Andrews told the News Room as he also pleaded for more Police patrol.

The businessman explained that it is difficult to hire private security for his establishment because of the design.

“To secure the place, it is difficult because you cannot enclose and because of that people don’t want to take that chance and be a security for the place.”

On Saturday night, Andrews received the dreadful news that the restaurant was burnt.

“We cannot come to grips as to why it happened and who would have done it [but] we are not going to speculate. It is in the hands of the Police now to investigate,” Andrews told the News Room on Monday.

It rained heavily at the weekend and Andrews believes this assisted in extinguishing the fire.

“The only thing that could have stopped this was the rain, the Fire Service could not have reached in time to extinguish this, this is leaves, it would have caught like wildfire.”

He estimated approximately $700,000 in losses. The thatch roof made from troolie leaves suffered about 80 per cent damage while all the tables, food warmers and other furniture were upturned.

The restaurant was closed due to difficulty faced by suppliers and Andrews said they were aiming to reopen on February 10.

The restaurant has been in operation since 2016 but only relocated to the seawalls three years ago.

This will set back to reopening date to several weeks.

“We have to do major repairs, we have to do the entire roofing and that is something that is timely and costly, the leaves have to come from the interior,” Andrews said.

The restaurant provides a unique place to serve indigenous cuisine in the city. Andrews explained that he wanted to mirror what the indigenous people are accustomed to and wanted them to feel at home when they visit Georgetown.

“We could have used zinc or plastic, but we decided to use troolie because this is part of our lives.”