Vendors who use additional temporary structures along the markets are being reminded by the Mayor and City Council of Georgetown to remove them at the end of each workday. This request is welcomed by some vendors but poses a challenge for others.
The M&CC earlier this month reminded vendors working along pavements and contiguous market locations that they must remove all pallets, tables, trays and other structures used during their daily trade at the end of the workday.
This is a standing agreement between the council and the vendors.
On Thursday, the News Room visited the Bourda Market where some vendors who have stalls in the markets are able to pack up their additional items and remove the structures. These vendors are content with this resolve.
Allison Edwards and Monica Mitchell, two vendors, told the News Room that they are pleased with the arrangement.
“When I finish, I pack them up every day and put them in my stall, they don’t leave out here,” Edwards said when asked about the structures in front of her stall.
She added that the M&CC did not need to tell her to pack up because she had been doing so even before. At the end of her work day, she stacks all of her items into her stall.
Mitchell also follows this protocol and she said she sees no issues with packing up at the end of the day and moving her pallets. “It’s not a bad idea that when you finish selling in the afternoon you remove all your things off the road way.”
However, other vendors who rely heavily on the pallets and tables to ply their trade are having difficulties with removing all the items largely because it is costly to do so.
One vendor said that packing and unpacking is a tedious activity especially when you don’t have a lot of space. Meanwhile another, who doesn’t have a stall said she packs her items and leave them stored at the spot but this is not safe and persons have looted off with her things on many occasions.
She noted, “It could be challenging because taking a taxi in and out if you don’t have your own transportation.”
Mayor Ubraj Narine has said that vendors were told that they must remove all items from the road corners otherwise the council will remove them.
“We are informing them that if they don’t move it, we will move it. That project has commenced and will continue over the Christmas season,” the Mayor said.
He also said that this was an agreed decision during a meeting between the vendors and the city council. Vendors found in violation of removing the structures will be penalized, a notice by the M&CC states.
Over the years many vendors have been asked to refrain from putting temporary structures too far onto the road ways which block traffic flow. Having vendors use only the boundary assigned to them is a way to ensure that the markets are not congested with vehicles and shoppers.
