…K&VC Food Shop, Lance Photo Studio to be dismantled
Over one year ago, City Hall dismantled the popular ‘Dread Shop’ at the Stabroek Market area near the Route 42 minibus park, resulting in the owner, Anthony Forde, filing legal action. 
Town Clerk Royston King has now said that the Court has ruled in favour of the Mayor and City Council of Georgetown (M&CC) in this matter.
“The City has won cases against Lancelot Kennedy – that’s the gentleman who’s operating the photo studio on Stabroek Market Square – (and) against the Dread Shop and the K&VC Food Shop. In the case of Lancelot Kennedy, he has until the 26th of November to remove. In the case of K&VC, he has (been given) no time, and we will serve him the requisite notice and perhaps 7 or 8 days later he will have to move,” King told the Mayor and City Council at Monday’s Statutory Meeting.
In May of last year, City Hall dismantled the popular shop after the Council noted that the area in which the Dread Shop was located fell within the council area, as is described under the Municipal and District Councils Act, Chapter 28:01. City Hall had said the proprietors of the demolished shop “had been informed by the Council that they were required to vacate the said area, and had been given reasonable and sufficient notice to so do.”
However, the shop owner had said he had never been given notice to vacate, and that the late President Burnham had given him permission to remain at the site when the former leader held the portfolio of Prime Minister. Forde, through Attorney Nigel Hughes, had filed an injunction in the Court of Appeal, but City Hall, feigning ignorance, had proceeded with the demolition.
Following the demolition, The Island Snackette and Pizzeria, formerly K&VC Snackette, was left standing; but now the Town Clerk is saying that that entity also would have to remove. Additionally, Lance Photo Studio is scheduled to be removed from November 26, after the Municipality won its Court cases against both businesses.
Several calls to Attorney Hughes’s phone have gone unanswered.
Demico sidewalk vending 
On Friday last, King issued a handbill to vendors selling on the western side of Demico House, at the Stabroek Market Square, informing them that they would be unable to vend at that location from October 10. However, Deputy Mayor Lionel Jaikarran, Chairman of the M&CC’s Markets Committee, has stated that the committee is unaware of any such decision.The handbill, bearing the name of King, informed the vendors: “The Mayor and City Council will remove any and all persons selling on the western side of Demico any time after October 10, 2017”, and informed the vendors that they would be forcibly removed if they do not comply with the instructions given.
At Monday’s Statutory Meeting, King said the move to clear the vendors from that area came after repeated complaints from the management of Banks DIH.
“We also have reports of increasing incidents of larceny and wounding of persons. It is our responsibility to clear the area of all those objectionable activities. This would not affect the night vendors, and would only affect those on the western sidewalk of Demico House,” King said.
The last time vendors were removed from the Stabroek Market/Demico area was in May 2016, ahead of Guyana’s 50th Independence anniversary celebrations. They were given temporary accommodation at a vacant plot of land at Hadfield and Lombard Streets. But a few months later, the owner of the land, Hareshnarine “Chiney” Sugrim, evicted the occupants of that land and locked the gates.
Mayor Patricia Chase-Green has said she has no problem with removing the vendors from where they currently operate, since they were once evicted from there. “We are just moving them back to the old place of vending. I do not want the Constabulary to go down there with no brute force and ignorance and damage people’s property,” she said.
When Guyana Times visited the area, the vendors had all been removed, and it is unclear where they have been relocated.
