Legal action looms as City Council hopes to seize back control of G/Town roads

In a move to seize back control of 22 city streets from the government, the Georgetown Mayor and City Council on Friday put forward a resolution to take the matter to court.

These streets, some of which are commercial and residential, were made Public Roads in a move gazetted on March 20, 2026 as Ministerial Orders by the Minister of Public Works under the Roads Act. This means the roads now fall directly under the Ministry.

During an extraordinary meeting on Friday, Georgetown Mayor Alfred Mentore proposed the resolution to write to the Minister of Public Works and the Attorney General Anil Nandlall in efforts to resolve the issue but more importantly, it was decided that the matter would be sent for legal advice.

APNU Councillors who were present signaled their agreement; there were no PPP/C Councillors present.

“We must put a stop to this…The Mayor and City Council rejects to the seizure and reclassification of the 22 council roads by the Central Government. The Council affirms that the roads remain in and under the lawful authority of the Council,” Mentore said.

Mentore said the council is responsible for the control of the streets and management of streets and parapets within the city. This means that the Municpal properties including the roads are legally under ownership and jurisdiction of the Mayor and City Council.

He said that it threatens the council’s revenue collection and the sanctity of vendors who ply their trade in those areas.

Some of the commercial streets where the council has been trying to get the vending situation under control are Regent Street, Charlotte Street, America Street, Camp Street. Other residential streets include D’Andrade, Garnett, Da Silva, Sandy Babb, Cummings.

He said that the constant question about the Council’s ability to secure its revenues and he said if Central Government continues without open dialogue with the City Council, the Council will have to continue its efforts to strengthen public-private relationships.

“We need to have real talk on these matter and we have to have conversations if not nothing is going to happen in relation to we dealing with you. We will move to find other people to have public-private partnerships, ” he said.