Although vendors at the Mackenzie Waterfront Market have been given a respite until next January before they have to move to the new market on Mackenzie Wharf, one of them has moved to the High Court seeking to have the decision by the town clerk of Linden to relocate them in the first place quashed.
Wallison Nedd, of Victory Valley, Wismar, Linden, made an application through his lawyer Basil Williams and Justice Jainarayan Singh has ordered the town clerk to show why his decision to remove and relocate the vendor to another area should not be quashed on the grounds of excess or lack of jurisdiction. The town clerk has been ordered to appear before the court on November 26 where he is expected to show the judge why the decision made by himself and the mayor should not be quashed.
It was last Tuesday that vendors of the area had turned up to find their stalls had been largely demolished on the orders of the mayor and town clerk in order to have them transfer to the new market on the Mackenzie Wharf which had been constructed to house them. The vendors had arrived to discover that the frontal extensions of more than 15 stalls had been ripped off. The council met the vendors the same morning in what was described as a “very emotional meeting,” since many vendors were in tears as they pleaded for more time. At the end of the meeting, they were granted permission to remain in their current location until January, although there were some conditions.
But while his colleagues were seeking the extension, Nedd was upset that the proposed spot identified for him was number 44 of the 52 news stalls erected at the new location. In his affidavit to support the application, Nedd said he had been occupying his stall since 1997 and at first he rented it but later bought it in 1999, following which he renovated it and started paying a monthly rent of $1,870 to the council which he still paid. He said suddenly and without warning or previous notice or consultation he received a letter in September of this year instructing him to remove the stall and relocate to the Arcade area; further should he fail to do same it would result in the stall being dismantled. He said he responded and proposed that he be given a vacant plot of land directly behind his present stall, or alternatively a stall just behind his stall on the newly built wharf. His request was not granted, and instead the council proposed that he move to another location and he again responded and asked to be moved to the spot just behind his present stall. But on October 22 he received another letter and this time he was told he should move to stall number 44 of the 52 new stalls that had been built on the wharf. Nedd argues that the decision by the council is “arbitrary, wrongful, unreasonable, ultra vires, null and void and in excess of the Town Council’s powers.”
