City Hall granted until December for vendors’ stay at Parliament View mall

Jul 31, 2016 News

According to reports, the administration of the Mayor and City Council (M&CC) is seeking to extend the relocated Stabroek Square vendors’ stay at the “Parliament View” mall.

Town Clerk, Royston King

Hareshnarine Sugrim

Town Clerk Royston King was in negotiations with Hareshnarine Sugrim, the proprietor of the “Parliament View” lot. The relocation of the vendors to that location was supposed to be temporary and was slated to last a period of three months.
That deadline has come to an end. At the time of relocation, the Town Clerk had promised the vendors that (City Hall) would find a more permanent, suitable location to properly house the vendors.
Sugrim said, yesterday, that he has agreed to extend the stay of the vendors at “Parliament View’’ until December.
Sugrim in an invited comment said that the granting of the extension to City Hall is his way of supporting and giving to the new administration of Georgetown and to the government.
City Hall had embarked on a massive cleanup of the Stabroek Square and Water Street at the beginning of May. After the cleanup the “street” vendors were removed and relocated to the empty lot opposite Public Buildings on Hadfield Street.
The vendors were those who were selling on the pavements of Water Street and around Stabroek Square.
Those displaced were allocated stalls in the new location south of Parliament Building on Hadfield Street. The vendors had to sign a contract agreeing to occupy the new plot of land provided by the Council for three months after which they would be relocated to buildings that the M&CC would have supposedly already found to facilitate their permanent move.
Before the move the M&CC had done some work on the ground at “Parliament View”, installed lights and portable toilets.
Despite the ground work many vendors have complained of the flooding at “Parliament View”, and the stalls being too “choked” and cramped for space.
A few vendors expressed their growing impatience with the M&CC’s failure to provide a permanent and comfortable environment for them to ply their trade.