The agreement – called the Vlissengen Ordinance of 1876 – entrusted the government with custodial duties to maintain Bourda cemetery.

[2][3][5] Bourda Cemetery has repeatedly come under threat of demolition or relocation from Mayors and City Councils of Georgetown.

In 1960 H. R. Persaud and the Historical Society organised a campaign to save the cemetery after the local government when it first came under threat.

In 1992, the local government proposed the relocation of the cemetery in order to make way for a road to run through its present site.

Shortly before works were about to start, however, the Guyana Heritage Society obtained a legal injunction preventing the Mayor and the City Council from constructing a road through the cemetery grounds.