Vacate Stabroek Wharf today, City Hall tells vendors

Sep 13, 2018 News

– but still to complete new site

The incomplete area
demarcated for the vendors

Vendors have until today to remove from the now perilous Stabroek Market Wharf, but contrary to what City Hall has promised, they have nowhere to go.
The Mayor and City Council (M&CC) had indicated a plan to remove the stallholders from the stelling, and place them in what was the old car park/bus park for short drop cars and Route 42 buses.
However, to date, the area is yet to be completed, prompting stallholders to worry about their fate.
Officials from the Council are unable to say when it will be ready for the vendors.
This has left stallholders at a loss as to what will happen to them today, as the notice given to them by the Council, clearly indicates that failure to remove “will result in lawful measures being employed” to ensure compliance.
One stallholder indicated that he was prepared since last week to move, after vendors were told they needed to dismantle their stalls and rebuild in the new area.
However, when he indicated his readiness to begin setting up shop, he was told that the area was not yet ready.
Another stallholder lamented that that she was more than happy to move as her stall at this point is in a deplorable state, with the back wall on the verge of collapsing.
“Watch, de back of me stall…I had to get glass case and bring all me things them to the front, plus I does gotta put down bucket fuh ketch water when the rain fall” the woman related.
She further lamented that following a visit from the Town Clerk to the stelling on Tuesday, the revenue clerks subsequently informed them that they were not to open up shop.
“King come, and he go way, then the revenue girl come out, and she tell we that we mustn’t open tomorrow, that nobody can’t sell, but I got perishables, I can’t just lock up me stall”
This was the cry of many of the stallholders. One man indicated that he had just stocked up on green bananas, whch he had brought all the way from the Pomeroon, and he is clueless as to what to do next.
Meanwhile, the Council through its Public Relations department has said that, while the area that has been designated for the vendors is not yet complete, they do not expect them to remain on the Stelling beyond the stipulated date for removal.