Mayor of Georgetown Alfred Mentore has distanced the Mayor and City Council (M&CC) from any claim that the Universal Church in downtown Georgetown was granted exclusive parking rights, following a recent public confrontation between a pastor and a driver over parking outside the church.
In a video highlighting the standoff outside the church at Charlotte and Wellington Streets, Mayor Mentore made it clear that City Hall has not granted the religious institution any special parking arrangement.
“This Council has never given the Universal Church any parking,” Mentore said. “No parking facility was ever applied for by the Universal Church to this Council for them to have reserved parking.”
He described as “erroneous” and misleading the pastor’s assertions that the church had reserved spaces sanctioned by the council.
“I was very disappointed when I saw the pastor behaving in such anger,” the Mayor noted, adding that the pastor appeared to be acting “outside of the norm and outside of his comfort zone” in the way he confronted the motorist over the parking space.
Mayor Mentore explained that once the Council became aware of the issue, its Public Relations Department and other officials moved swiftly to investigate and intervene at the location.
He said officials visited the area “just after we got this news item” and took steps to remove any structure, signage or obstruction that suggested the area was reserved exclusively for the church’s use.
“We went there to remove anything or any hindrance or any blocking or any exclusive arrangement they feel they had,” he stated.
The Mayor added that the M&CC would continue to monitor the area to ensure members of the public could access the parking spaces as normal.
“We will continue to ensure that the area is cleared and that anybody could park at any time because those are reserves of the Council and there’s no exclusive arrangement for that,” he emphasised.
Mentore stressed that the Council’s policy on reserved parking is very limited, applies only in specific circumstances, and applies to a small number of entities.
“The only people we grant those kinds of things [reserved parking] are the embassies and the Bank of Guyana and some other portions around for ingress and egress,” he explained.
He reiterated that no such consideration was ever given to the Universal Church and said the council is “not even considering anything of that sort,” especially in light of how the recent parking row unfolded.
