Street vendors given one week to get act together or face consequences

Apr 10, 2013 News

Vendors around Georgetown will have to get their act together within one week or risk being removed from city pavements where they illegally ply their trade.

Mayor Green, councillors and vendors at City Hall meeting to discuss the way forward.

Following up on the Parliamentary Bill which orders the restoration of the city, Mayor of Georgetown Hamilton Green and Deputy Mayor Patricia Chase-Green held a special meeting at City Hall yesterday with vendors operating in various parts of the city.
The vendors were warned that the primary focus was for them to operate their businesses in a clean and presentable environment which they would have to create and maintain.
Getting the point clear across on roadside vending, the Deputy Mayor said the act is outright illegal, but declared that the Mayor had been bending over backwards to accommodate those on the streets.
She said that, “it has been recognized that there is a serious socioeconomic problem that exists, whereby single parents have to make a living and the Mayor had been sticking his neck out for these persons throughout the years”.
However, vendors will have to do their part in ensuring that wherever they ply their trade it is favourable to the city and their methods of disposal are environmentally friendly.
Mayor Green asked vendors to take responsibility for their respective areas of business.
Vendors were asked to use “proper material” on their set-ups so as to not make the city ugly. They were told to keep drains and gutters in their areas clean, to have portable waste baskets or bins, to desist from blocking pavements and passageways, and to further carry themselves in a presentable manner since the whole idea was to “beautify” the vending trade amidst the restoration programme.
Several busy areas such as Robb and Regent Streets were cited as areas where the Council faces the most difficulty with vending. City Hall has further put in place measures whereby vendors and the Council could work together in ensuring that their surroundings stay clean and by extension the city.
Vendors however expressed that they too face difficulty in keeping their surroundings clean as claims were made that other persons would litter the city and areas where they worked. They even charged that larger traders would pay “junkies” to get rid of waste and these said “junkies” would dump indiscriminately blocking drains and polluting the city.
To that, the vendors said a closer relationship is needed between themselves and City Hall.
When the one-week period is however up, it is expected that Council members would be visiting areas and checking on the improvement that vendors make.
It was also noted that if they are found not doing what is necessary, without warning, notice or question they would be removed from the pavements.
It was A Partnership for National Unity’s Volda Lawrence who was able to secure a unanimous vote for a Bill to restore Georgetown to its once glorified state as the “Garden City”.
It was charged that the city could not go on in its current state of filth with indiscriminate dumping and lack of maintenance. The relevant authorities were ordered to urgently remedy the situation.
City Hall on the other hand had pointed to numerous reasons why they were not functioning meaningfully. They had noted the measly sums being pumped into the Council by the government and the alleged hijacking of administrative policies such as local government elections which have not been held for a number of years. Other deficiencies with resources and manpower were also mentioned.