The Mayor and City Council (M&CC) has registered more than 300 vendors to date, in its ongoing registration drive.
Speaking yesterday at a general meeting with vendors and other stakeholders who ply their trade in the city, Town Clerk Royston King said the vendors had been cooperating since the registration process began three weeks ago.
He explained that over 300 vendors had been registered and had been issued with identification cards and a certificate “which say who they are, what they are selling, where they are selling.” He said the new initiative will assist the council in monitoring the vendors in order to be able to better accommodate when the city council starts designing and constructing various buildings to house them.
King related that the council is using President David Granger’s vision of a roof over all vendors and he noted that one of the options under discussion is extending the northern side of the Stabroek Market and constructing an upper storey to house vendors.
“Next week we will begin a round of consultations [with] all those people who will be involved in that particular project and we are in the process of doing a project document,” he said, while pointing out that a survey and a feasibility study would be conducted as well, since the council would want to use the project as a model.
“Once we are able to identify the weaknesses, strengths, challenges, opportunities and so on then we are going to roll out similar projects in the new vendors mall and Bourda so that we can provide accommodation for vendors,” King added, while reiterating that the issue of finance was one of the major challenges the council was facing with respect to progress.
However, he said, at an investment and development committee meeting they were able to discuss possible avenues that they can explore to fund the projects. “We are now contemplating what kind of model we will use to finance these projects. Whether we will use a private-public partnership model, whether we will approach the bank and whether we will put up some of our own assets as collateral to borrow money from the bank to do it or whether we will just give it up to an investor, following tender,” he said. He added that the prospect of allowing the vendors to invest and develop the space themselves was also discussed.
With respect to the Kitty Market, King explained that there has been a slowdown because the M&CC has redirected its energies to the Albouystown Clinic, where there is a special project. “We are redesigning a clinic that caters to the public health needs to people of Albouystown and the surrounding areas,” he added. He said the clinic should be finished within a month and then work on the Kitty Market will continue with a view of completing it in two months.
He stated that the council was moving at a pace and time allotted to it by the resources at its disposal and that the issue of finance was worrying and new areas for revenue collection were being examined.
With respect to the meeting, King related that it was intended to bring the vendors and stakeholders up to date and allow them to air some of their concerns so they can move forward. “I believe the vendors expressed a willingness to understand where we are going with this and they have pledged their support to what we are doing and our effort to advance the interest of the city,” he said.
Several vendors raised issues they are facing where they currently ply their trade. One vendor said it was unfair that the council has been running behind them for their rates as compared to its lacklustre approach to the business owners who owe far more.
With respect to this claim, King said the decision was made by the administration to go forward with the initiating of legal proceedings to ensure the city recovers the money owed by businesses. “The council is determined to recover the monies because we believe that businesses should honour their civic responsibilities and we are moving now to serve notices… We have already had judgments on 14 defaults and will move to the next stage that will allow us to recover those outstanding sums,” King added.
