City Council threatens legal action over parapet works; requests environmental impact assessment

Last Updated on Saturday, 14 November 2026, 5:34 by Written By Denis Chabrol

The Mayor and City Council of Georgetown have threatened to take the Guyana government to court if excavation and alteration to parapets are not stopped by November 17 and scientific proof that the works would not drastically affect the environment.

“We urge that you cause an immediate cessation of these works or face the consequences which attend breaches of the law,” they told Public Works Minister Juan Edghill through their lawyer Eusi Anderson. He warned that if the works continue, they would be met with “staunch resistance and be prosecuted for criminal and civil wrongs.”

Citing several sections of the Municipal and District Councils Act and Guyana’s Constitution, the Mayor and City Council told Mr Edghill that he engaged in “demonstrable violations of the law” by arbitrarily trespassing on roads in Georgetown, destroying parapets and walkways by cutting down and trimming trees.

The Mayor and City Council asked the government to prove that it made sense to replace trees and green parapets that provided ecological balance and beauty to the Georgetown environs with gravel and heavy soil compacting machinery.  Areas referred to are Queenstown;  Festival City, North Ruimveldt and Cedar Court and Marudi Streets in Lamaha Gardens.

“To that end, I urge you to disclose the environmental impact assessment and consultative processes which informed your decision to violate the laws of Guyana by replacing decades’ old plants with gravel by or before 17^th November 2026.

Please simultaneously publish the names and credentials of the botanist and environmental experts who presided over the savage destruction of several trees which adorned and defined roads and communities in the Georgetown area,”  he said.

In addition to ceasing all works and removing equipment and materials from lands and roads for which he Mayor and City Council are responsible, they are asking the Public Works Minister to show why the destruction of trees, parapets and alleyways alongside roads “is within the perimeter of lawful behaviour.” ” In the course of this exercise do disclose all expert opinions, legal opinions, environmental impact assessment studies and all relevant data which informed your acts and omissions,” he said.