About 50 La Penitence Market vendors are facing displacement with no definite relocation site as the Ministry of Public Works implements measures to ease the traffic build-up along the East Bank area during peak hours.
Vendors are adamant that their stalls are not impeding the smooth flow of traffic and they are left wondering where to go since a meeting convened with Road and Traffic Safety Engineer Nigel Erskine did not reveal any alternative accommodation for them.
On Tuesday, the Government Information Agency reported that the ministry had overlaid La Penitence carriageway from Punt Trench Dam to Broad Street, in keeping with plans to turn the stretch into a two-way road to ease traffic congestion during peak hours. Erskine said, “Currently vehicles can only come into Georgetown through Lombard Street, but what we are trying to facilitate here is to have another alternative entrance into the city. The entire carriageway into Saffon Street has been overlaid to allow free movement to two lanes of traffic in either direction.” The road has been one-way from 6am to 6pm for several years. Erskine noted that on completion of the two lanes vehicles would be allowed to travel through Saffon Street and enter the city either from Sussex or Broad Street, using the secondary roads leading into the city.
At a meeting with vendors on Wednesday Erskine told those who plied their trade along Saffon Street that the changes would require them to relocate.
On Thursday, vendors told Stabroek News that they were against moving and noted that they were given short notice at the meeting. “The meeting wasn’t really to deal with our problem they just looking for solution to the traffic,” Gordon Watson, whose business has been operating at the market for some 75 years, said. “They tell we we gah move for our safety,” he added. The man also opined that the vendors stationed in the area are not the problem; rather congestion is caused by those who come from other markets to ply their trade there on Sundays. Watson also said that he suggested “that big container trucks use the back road and widen it a little” while the smaller vehicles can traverse the now two-way Saffon Street to ease congestion.
P Bhagwandia who has been vending at the location for 37 years, said it is unfair to ask vendors to move, as they had been paying rates to the Clerks of Market over the years. The woman pointed out that her stall is her sole source of income and she is now worried. “I go there expecting to hear about relocating but they ain’t tell me bout that they only tell we about opening the road. They lef we wondering wha gon happen,” she said.
“What I want to know, all these years we here, why the council taking rent from us and what they doing with that money?” a vendor who has been at the market for 16 years questioned. The frustrated woman added, “Where I gon go look for work now? We are barely making money fuh eat and pay rent. All the years they call it the market now they saying is the government place.”Another vendor says that she does not mind “pulling” in her stall a few feet but she too was adamant that the stalls were not impeding traffic. She did however point out that there is congestion on Sundays, which is market day.
A woman, who gave her name as Maureen and who said she had grown up with her mother vending at the market, said that the government has now put vendors in a “rough situation.” Maureen said that she is dependent on the few sales that her stall makes and “it gon cost we a lot” to relocate. She also said that the decision to have vendors relocate was made on short notice and noted that it may have been taken on Saturday when the mayor and ministry officials were inspecting the roads. Maureen also noted that a businessman had raised the issue of a pedestrian crossing at the meeting and early Thursday morning one was painted.
When this newspaper contacted Clerk of Market Schulder Griffith for a comment he said it was his job to work with vendors to find alternatives for relocation. He said too some vendors have met with him and have come up with a relocation proposal. When this newspaper contacted Works Minister Robeson Benn, he referred its queries to Erskine; however, efforts to contact Erskine proved futile.
Traffic congestion coming from the East Bank has been a longstanding issue with few solutions found. Recently, Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee had signed an order barring slow-moving vehicles from using city streets and the East Bank Public Road between Houston and Timehri weekdays and on Saturdays from 7 am to 9am and from 4 pm to 6 pm.
