New laws to allow certified companies to remove derelict vehicles from reserves, roadways – Pres. Ali

The government will introduce legislation to facilitate the removal of derelict vehicles and scrap materials from roadways and public reserves, with the assistance of private companies.

This was announced by President Dr Irfaan Ali on Wednesday during the opening ceremony of the Annual Police Officers’ Conference.

He noted that the Minister of Home Affairs Oneidge Walrond has already been engaged on this matter.

“The police don’t need to do it, we’ll have certified companies,” the president said.

“You pass, you see a truck more than three days, you put one ‘x’, if in two weeks, it ain’t [moved], you put two ‘x’ and a notice, and if after four weeks, you pass and it ain’t moved, then the company can come and remove it and sell it as scrap metal,” he noted.

Minister of Public Works Juan Edghill recently spearheaded a few derelict removal exercises in Georgetown, during which he went live to highlight the pushback officials face in executing their duties.

One of the sites where the removal exercise was conducted was the Old Railway Embankment behind the GuyOil Gas Station, where the road was blocked by abandoned vehicles owned by Global Spare Parts and Auto Sales. At that location, the owner of the auto sales had contracted two trucks to act as a barricade to the officials attempting to remove the derelict vehicles.

But President Ali emphasised that “we don’t have the time; we don’t have the human capital”.

“You think, every time somebody call and say they got scrap metal blocking their yard/street, we got people to send out and remove it? We don’t have that luxury of human capital anymore so we have to use the law,” he posited.