City Council shuts down five food joints
Recently, the Georgetown Mayor and City Council (M&CC) shut down five food joints across the City. The Acting Head of City Hall’s Meat and Hygiene Department, Abiola Baker, made the disclosure yesterday at a press conference. She told the media that the food businesses that were shut down were operating illegally. “When I say operating illegally I mean they were operating without the necessary documentation,” said Baker. She also noted that the documents which the business owners did not possess needed to be presented to Council even before the business begun operation. The documents include a copy of an approved building plan from Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) as well as a letter from CH&PA giving the business owner permission to operate.
Baker said that none of the five businesses that were shut down had the required documents. She said that Council made several visits to the businesses and served them with violation letters before finally deciding to close down. Further, Baker said that some of the food joints were operating under insanity conditions. They were even without food handling certificates.
Two of the food joints that have been shut down are located on Sheriff Street— a burger grill and another snackette. Baker also spoke of a soup shop in Costello Housing Scheme which has been operating for a long time. “We have been behind them for a while.” Dionne’s Delight on Dennis Street and a grill on Duncan Street have also been shut down. Baker said that there is a bakery in Alexander Village which is operating under deplorable conditions and the City Council is in the process of having them closed as well. She said that there are also some food joints on Sussex Street and other areas “but we haven’t had the opportunity to meet the owners when we went to serve the final notice.” Baker continued, “Those people have workers going and bake and then taking it into the market area, people are not aware where they are coming from, so they just purchase.”
(Kaieteurnewsonline.com)