M&CC, vendors finding common ground

The Mayor and City Council (M&CC) expressed appreciation to vendors who honoured their end of the agreement despite Sunday’s inclement weather, to clean up around the Stabroek Market and the minibus park area in Georgetown primarily utilised for vending purposes.
Speaking with Guyana Times, Town Clerk Royston King stated that the initial agreement was to have vendors, in collaborative efforts with the Council on the first and last Sunday of the month, clean the premises where they sell.
It all started with a decision to abruptly remove scores of vendors from the Stabroek Square in the name of a clean-up campaign for Guyana’s Golden Jubilee celebrations back in May last year, with no alternative vending area.
That action attracted much criticism from the parliamentary Opposition People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) and widespread protests from vendors who had been operating in the area for decades. The municipality finally managed to temporarily secure a piece of land, later known as “Parliament View Mall”, south of Parliament Building on Hadfield Street and 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 them.
Three months then elapsed and the City Council in July sought to extend the lease period until December 2016. Subsequently, the businessman and owner of the land which houses the “Parliament View Mall” indicated that he wanted his premises vacated, contending that the verbal agreement to extend the vendors’ stay up to December 31, 2016, had expired.
The vendors who had been plying their trade on the vacant lot then returned to their former spots near the Stabroek Market in early January upon the expiration of the lease and after being granted permission by the M&CC.
Vendors had initially complained bitterly upon their relocation to the “Parliament View Mall” contending that they were unable to garner sales, and subsequently expressed their satisfaction upon returning to the Market area in early 2017. According to media reports, vendors must ensure their environs are kept clean or they would not be permitted to sell.