Vendors plying their trade on the Merriman Mall between Orange Walk and Cummings Street were yesterday barred from entering that area and called on President David Granger and others to intervene but the mayor says they have to clean up their act before they will be allowed to return.
Yesterday, when vendors turned up to sell, they found themselves barred from the site with barricades manned by city police in place. Some vendors said they only learnt of the city council’s edict from reading it in the Stabroek News. Stabroek News reported yesterday that City Hall plans to permanently end vending along that section of the Merriman Mall.
This decision comes two months after the council asked those wholesalers who plied their trade in the area to move east and operate at what was once the “skating rink” to facilitate the creation of a car park to ease congestion in the city.
When contacted by Stabroek News, Georgetown Mayor Hamilton Green said he is not aware of any plans to permanently end vending at the site.
Yesterday, after being blocked from entering the area, the angry vendors marched to the Ministry of the Presidency and called on the president to intervene. The disgruntled vendors stood outside the complex for approximately two hours but got no response.
According to a vendor, Geeta (only name given), she related their issue to an official within the Ministry. She said after speaking to the official, he responded that his office would keep in contact with her. However, she said, they did not receive any concrete response.
Another vendor Melissa Roberts told Stabroek News that she spent 32 years selling at the location. When she turned up yesterday, she related, she was told that they could not sell there any longer. According to Roberts, she is member of a committee set up by the vendors and neither she nor any other member was informed by City Hall of the decision.
Roberts also explained that they were first told that they cannot sell at the location for a week but subsequently heard that the suspension was extended to two weeks and “this morning we are reading in the newspapers that it is a permanent thing…we never know about this.
“Are they trying to take away our livelihoods to build a skating rink,” Roberts questioned.
According to Geeta, it seems as if Town Clerk Royston King has no respect for the vendors. “If he had respect for us he would have called a meeting and informed us of what he is planning to do and tell us he had somewhere to put us…But he has no respect for the vendors of the Merriman Mall. He eye-pass us,” she declared.
Geeta explained that for the past 15 years, she has been vending at the location and to remove her in that manner is wrong.
Regularised
Another vendor, Amar, said the Merriman Mall is a regularised market but in other parts of the city illegal vendors have set up permanent structures. He argued that the Merriman Mall vendors are selling at a legal point and have to move but others who are illegal, are allowed to stay. “We are here working for our daily bread to make a daily life. We don’t steal or do anything illegal,” he said.
Addressing the garbage situation at the location over the weekend, Amar said it was as a result of “junkies” dumping garbage and not the vendors. He said the garbage came from communities such as Kitty, Alberttown and Albouystown. “People send it there with the junkies and dem placed it next to where we are selling,” Amar said.
The man further related that Deputy Mayor Patricia Chase-Green, at a meeting, had told them that the city council would place constables on the stretch to prevent persons from dumping garbage there. “She said someone would be there from Saturday night to Wednesday when we are not there to ply our trade. Those were her personal and exact words. How can they lapse and make us pay the penalty for it,” he questioned.
The vendors said if they have to be moved, they expect that the city council would give them a decent and comfortable place at where to vend.
Single mother Vanessa Sam told Stabroek News that when she got to the mall yesterday, a city constable told her that she cannot sell there. The woman said she has been vending for 25 years on the mall and had never been asked to move before. According to Sam, when she first started to sell at the market “it was all mud and water, we used to pool money and buy truckloads of sands to fill up this place and now they want to remove us from here.”
Yesterday, tempers flared as the vendors sought attention from the Mayor and City Council, the Ministry of the Presidency, the opposition and others such as social activist Mark Benschop.
In the afternoon, Benschop met with the vendors and listened to their concerns. “These people have been vending for 30 plus years and for these new found dictators at City Hall, who have suddenly awakened after 23 years and are trying to trample on the rights of these people, is unfair. These vendors are hardworking vendors. You cannot just go and evict someone out from somewhere without providing a place for them,” Benschop told Stabroek News.
He said if it is a matter of keeping the environment clean, all the city council had to do was speak to the vendors properly. “We are out here to let the people know their constitutional rights,” Benschop said. He added that what City Hall is doing is wrong and the vendors are being deprived of earning a living.
The vendors spent a large part of the day protesting. They spoke their minds as the police and constabulary ranks at the scene stood their ground.
Meantime, the mayor told Stabroek News that he is not aware of any permanent termination of vending at the site. He said the vendors were prevented from entering the location yesterday because they had not implemented decisions agreed with City Hall.
According to Green, he held a meeting with the vendors on November 3 last year and asked that they be a part of the crusade to improve, enhance and restore Georgetown. According to Green, he informed the vendors that the block they occupied was always in a disturbing state and it was incompatible with the programme being implemented for the Merriman Mall. Green said after the discussions, he urged them to form themselves into groups and meet with the Clerk of Markets to discuss the way forward.
The mayor said he told the vendors that they would only be allowed to vend if they complied with rules set out.
“We told them that stalls should be uniform, same height, same size, they should have space for themselves and customers to move around and we suggested they move more to the east for tidiness. We also asked that they had a standard colour and size and that they have bins placed next to their stalls and at the end of their business day, they ensure that the area was clean and tidy,” he said.
Green reiterated that the vendors were prevented from selling because they did not comply with the regulations. He related that over the last two days, city workers cleaned the canals on both sides and removed approximately seven skiffs of garbage.
The mayor related that the vendors missed several deadlines to get themselves in order and the town clerk took the appropriate actions to clean the area.
“We are not moving them…it is not my intention to move them but they have to comply with the new regulations to have standard table, sheds and bins,” Green declared. He said the vendors would not be allowed to vend until they are in compliance with the requirements.
Vendors have expressed fear that their produce would not be sold and they would suffer losses.
King had told Stabroek News on Tuesday that the entire section between Cummings Street and Orange Walk would be reserved for “cultural and social uses, such as open air concerts and sporting activities.”
