By Dena James
Music cart operators were yesterday told they need to modify the way they operate if they wanted to stay in business but voiced objections to proposals to regulate them.
The proposals, announced by Home Minister Clement Rohee during a consultation yesterday at the St Stanislaus College, are for the itinerant vendors to remodel their carts, vend in one place and use headphones as a means of keeping their noise level down.
Music cart operators, who sell pirated music and movies, usually push their carts through the streets both in and out of the city and blast music, which has drawn complaints from the public. During the consultation, issues of the carts congesting the roadways, delaying traffic and the noise nuisance issue were raised.
Rohee said that some sort of order should be established. “We don’t want to put anybody out of business but regulate it,” he said, while announcing that “We built a prototype of a music cart we would like to see.”
The prototype, which is similar to the carts used by operators in Trinidad and Tobago, was showcased at the consultation. It features a monitor with a DVD player, a music set and speakers. The cost of making one of these carts would be about $200,000, but it was stated that the remodeling of the old carts would be cheaper and that this is envisaged to take approximately three days.
Rohee also stated that various recommendations were made by the National Commission on Law and Order, including the regularisation of music carts, a designated location where music carts would be placed, a list of CDs that the owner has to offer and headphones for prospective customers to listen to the music.
Public Works Minister Robeson Benn, who was also at the consultation, said the music carts were a major concern and a significant problem.
But cart owners vented to the ministers, stating that the new model would not withstand the transportation routes that some of them use, as the wheels seemed less sturdy. Another issue raised was that of storage. Ann Lewis, a cart owner said her current cart caters for over 800 CDs, while the new cart would only be able to hold about 300.
The music vendors also dismissed the use of headphones as a bad idea, with one cart owner stating that he wouldn’t want to use headphones that every other customer has used.
A major issue mentioned by almost all the cart owners was that of the stoppage of playing music loudly on the streets. Many of them said that by doing this, they would certainly lose customers.
“You have to prepare to make the compromise to continue your business,” Benn told them. “It would be sustainable both for us and for you.” Benn also that noise nuisance was a problem. He also told operators that the sale of pirated CDs was also illegal but he was not going to address that issue.
One cart owner said that if the change is to be made, tight security should be implemented towards their music carts and a secured parking place. He also said that with the change there would need to be a transition period. “We can’t have change in a day,” he stated.
Music cart owner Baldeo Singh told Stabroek News that he would not be able to work with the new music cart. He said that the transition period is too short and the new cart would cause even more traffic jams due to its size.
Benn said the ministry would be responsible for remodelling a few of the carts, but most of the operators would be responsible for remodelling their carts.
