With its eyes on winning Georgetown at the upcoming Local Government Elections, the PPP/C has promised that road vending will continue, but must be structured, complemented by rehabilitated municipal markets and other facilities.
“… Vendors need to understand that you will be allowed to continue earning a living but your conditions have to improve for vending. That is our position. We have never had an extreme [position] because we have been lobbied on both sides,” Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo told a press conference yesterday.
“We made it clear. In some of the most developed capitals of the world, they have street vending,” Jagdeo added, as he explained that his party has taken the stance to support orderly vending.
Street vending has been a controversial issue for almost two decades and not limited to the capital. Over the years, vendors on Regent Street and the Stabroek Market area have been vocal every time having them relocated or moved has been raised. As more roads are built and others upgraded, vending has increased.
In late 2021, Minister of Public Works Juan Edghill had said that vendors along the main roadways of Georgetown would have to relocate or seek alternative jobs.
Following a site visit at the Sheriff/Mandela Avenue road project, Edghill said he had observed many vendors along main roads and referred to the activity as a road safety hazard. Further, he said, vending was a violation which will have to be dealt with by the ministries of Local Government and Public Works and the Mayor and City Council.
It has not been different in other parts of the country.
Also in 2021, Minister of Local Government and Regional Development Nigel Dharamlall in the presence of the Town Council at Anna Regina, had given vendors a deadline to stop all roadside vending. They had been advised to relocate to the Bush Lot Market. The ultimatum was met with a protest by some of the 150 vendors who had been vending at Anna Regina roadside for many years. That protest was organised by then PNCR Region Two Chairman Prince Holder.
Georgetown Mayor Ubraj Narine has said that he will meet with stakeholders to find a solution to stop roadside vending, but until then he will not remove vendors because that is how they make their living.
Jagdeo said that the party’s position is not one to have street vending eliminated, but done in a way that is orderly and does not take away from the aesthetics of the areas where the stalls are located.
“The street vending here has to be done under better conditions. They need massive investments in our markets to improve management generally and that is being promised, and also the facilities. There has to be major investments in the markets and that is promised. You can’t give the money to this City Council here, because they would take the money and not spend it on vendors. These [facilities] are important for markets as well as the patrons, the people who go there,” he said.
“Then there is vending done along the roadside etcetera. Some of the vending is done by people who own the stores. They have an arrangement with the vendors in front of them and some [do] not. People will continue to vend there on the streets, but it has to be done under different conditions. You can’t block people’s store entrances, And, too,the conditions there have to be kept cleaner…,” he added.
