Demerara High Court Judge Justice Jo-Ann Barlow has ordered the City Engineer of Georgetown to take all necessary steps to remove all encumbrances from in front of the Collections Boutique and Gift Centre at Lot 27 Water Street, Georgetown, Attorney-at-Law Siand Dhurjon, representing the business, said in a statement made on Tuesday.
In a judgement delivered in a lawsuit filed by business owner Diana Balram against the Town Clerk, Justice Jo-Ann Barlow has ordered the City Engineer to remove all vehicles, carts, drays, barrels, boxes from in front of the business property.
By way of a fixed date application filed in November 2021, the business, through its lawyer Siand Dhurjon, argued that certain by-laws under the Municipal and District Councils Act, Cap.28:01, places a statutory duty on the City Engineer to ensure that the pavements, streets, parapets, footpaths of Georgetown are not encumbered by persons placing things on them.
Balram swore in her affidavit that vendors were impeding and preventing access to her premises to an unacceptable extent by placing their structures, stalls, stands, boxes, goods and other things on the pavements, streets, footpaths, et cetera in front of her premises.
She also swore that “I am usually unable to drive my vehicle into my said premises in the afternoons. Often, customers would come to pick up goods and would be unable to make use of the driveway and entryway for ingress and egress.”
The businesswoman told the court that this would occur when deliveries are made to her business, and that she has been experiencing this problem for years.
Dhurjon said his client had written to the Georgetown Mayor and City Council and the City Engineer on many occasions, and had even visited the Council on three occasions concerning the issue, to no avail.
According to counsel Dhurjon, Attorney-at-Law Darren Wade appeared on behalf of the Town Clerk and City Engineer, and argued that when he and staff of the City Council visited the premises, nothing was blocking the entrance to Balram’s establishment. He said that Wade told the court that the City Council was doing all it can to clear up the area.
However, Dhurjon said an officer of the City Council appeared for the benefit of the court and stated that, indeed, vendors were blocking the pavement and accessways to Collections Boutique and Gift Centre, and that the City Council had not even sat to consider the issue raised by his client in her lawsuit in the nearly three months since it was filed.
Attorney Dhurjon said the lawsuit was served on an individual known as “Bucky”, who operated a fixed stall in front of Collections Boutique and Gift Centre, and she was soon after removed. However, Wade, Dhurjon noted, submitted that the City Council had no obligation under law to remove vehicles, carts, stalls, and other ‘mobile things’.
Dhurjon has said that the court agreed with his submission that By-Law 10 makes no distinction between fixed or mobile things, and requires the pavements, streets, footpaths of the capital city to be unencumbered. To this end, he said, Justice Barlow commanded the City Engineer to remove all vehicles, carts, drays, barrels, boxes, things and all encumbrances on the pavements, streets, and footpaths from within the vicinity of the store.
Meanwhile, in December 2021, High Court Judge Simone Morris-Ramlall ordered the Town Clerk to instruct the Constabulary of the City of Georgetown to prohibit pavement vending in front of the Shamdas Kirplani Store located at 107 Regent Street, Lacytown, Georgetown.
The ruling came after Kanayalal and Meera Kirpalani – the transported owners of the Regent Street property – filed judicial review proceedings against the Town Clerk to have the City prevent persons from vending on the pavement in front of their store.
Like Balram, the Kirpalanis had complained that the encumbrance of the pavement and road by vendors had, over the years, affected their business. They said that persons traversing the pavement are inconvenienced as, at most times, the vendors occupy most of the pavement.
The order of Justice Morris-Ramlall in effect compelled the Town Clerk to order the City Constabulary to prevent any person or persons from carrying or placing any receptacle or other article on the pavement which would incommode the store owners’ property and/or other persons in the use of the pavement in front of the building which houses the store.
