“It was not the Town Council who served the vendors notices to move, it was the Minister Robeson Benn,” so said Regional Democratic Council Communication Officer Leon Roberts.
According to Roberts, misinformation given by the Government Information Agency (GINA) has thrown a bad light on the Linden Town Council which has been working hard at setting its house in order.
The GINA release said, “President Bharrat Jagdeo committed to providing a more convenient area for vendors occupying the One Mile, Wisroc area after they asked him to intervene following a 14-day notice to remove from the Region 10 Town Council.”
According to a letter of representation sent to Minister of Transport Robeson Benn by Regional Chairman Mortimer Mingo, it was brought to his attention that notices were served to owners of structures along the Winifred Gaskin Highway, Wismar, Linden to have them removed within 14 days. “These persons have since organized a meeting to which the RDC was invited and have requested that the council make representation to your ministry for a reconsideration of this notice,” Mingo’s letter stated.
The request was made against the background of the dire economic climate in which Lindeners find themselves as well as the fact that the owners of these structure have plied their trade in Linden for over thirty years, eking out an income to assist in raising generations of children.
Ninety-nine per cent of the stalls are owned by single parent women, most of whom have no other means of income while they also have loans with IPED, LEAF and commercial banks.
Following Wednesday’s meeting the stallholders said they were satisfied with the response from President Jagdeo who, according to them, had said that the government did not have immediate need for the usage of the area until approximately two years from now.
Each stallholder along the route, the main road through Wismar that leads into the country’s interior, had received the approval of the Linden Town Council to erect the structures and had been diligently paying the council revenue.