–residents suspect ‘Pradoville’ people

RESIDENTS of the East Coast Demerara Community of Goedverwagting are feeling the squeeze after an access bridge on which they heavily depend was set alight last Thursday night.

According to the residents, it is the second such occurrence. The bridge in question reportedly connects Goedverwagting with neighbouring ‘Pradoville’.
They told the Guyana Chronicle that early in September, the Plaisance Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC) had cause to lodge a complaint with the police in their community regarding the wanton destruction of the bridge by persons unknown.
While investigations into that fire were still ongoing, residents moved to have the bridge rebuilt last Monday. However, three days after it was reconstructed, it was again set alight.

Rodwell Leonard who resides in the community, said that last Thursday around 02:00hrs, he and his fellow villagers “had to come out again and out the fire.”
He said they have every reason to suspect that it is the residents of Pradoville who have been vandalising the bridge, as they have long had an issue with Goedverwagting people passing through their community.
This has been going on since the Pradoville community was established back in 2002, Leonard said, adding that while the police are still doing their investigations, they have two suspects on their radar.
He hopes the footage from the CCTV camera overlooking the bridge would be of help to the police, as the issue is becoming overbearing.
“It is becoming very frustrating for the residents,” Leonard said. “This is a bridge that children use to access the ‘line-top’, and people who going to work at the Ogle Airport use it to get to work.”
He said while the bridge was out of commission following the fire last month, schoolchildren had to use the “very busy” Railway Embankment Road.

Back then when the incident occurred, Goedverwagting residents had told the Guyana Chronicle that they believed their Pradoville neighbours had finally succeeded in keeping them out of their community.
That bridge was said to be a “saviour” for many schoolchildren attending the Bladen Hall Primary and Cummings Lodge Secondary Schools, as it helped keep them off the busy Railway Embankment Road.
Leonard said the bridge had been in existence long before ‘Pradoville’ was established.

Before the fire last month, residents in Pradoville had allegedly attempted to burn the bridge on two occasions. “But we always see smoke and run out to out it,” one Goedverwagting resident said.