Pavement vending hazardous to visually-impaired persons – Minister

Public Works Minister Juan Edghill has said that pavement vending is hazardous to the general public, especially for persons that are visually impaired.
He made this position clear on Tuesday, during an interview on the sidelines of an event at Owen and McDougall Streets, Campbellville, Georgetown, stating that persons are forced to walk on the roadway rather than on the pavements as a result of the congestion created by pavement vendors.

“People that are disabled, visually impaired and all of them – they are at risk.”
The minister has already met with representatives for visually impaired persons since the Government would have taken office, and the ministry has since rendered some assistance in regards to their safety whilst using the roads in Georgetown.
“… we’ve tried to assist them in some aspects of road safety by putting in sounds at the traffic lights so they can know when the traffic lights change”, the minister said, adding that “we’ve spoken to shop owners who cast the front of their shops – the curbs and the pave – to prevent flooding. People who are visually impaired when they get their level, and then they come stumbling down because somebody has done something.” He highlighted however, that more works can be done in ensuring the safety of the visually-impaired.
Moreover, Edghill revealed that there are issues that need to be dealt with in regards to roadside vending on the main access roads and he has plans to meet with persons that are contributors to this reoccurring issue. This practice, he pointed out has been creating some amount of interruption and difficulties with road and traffic safety.

“We’ve had some issues with the road going into Parfaite Harmonie where people were just opening up shacks and building up. We had to have some discussions with them,” Edghill explained.
“Now that we have Sheriff-Mandela completing at a four-lane, the temptation for other people to come out – we have to get that regularized. We have to deal with the same thing along Hunter Street.”
He also mentioned that discussions are ongoing with persons that sell items such as bread and dog food along the road ways.
“…so just like we did with vending on the seawall… I called everybody, we had a meeting, we put them in a regularized manner – 15 feet – everybody had to move in beyond the edge of the road to ensure that traffic is able to pass.”
“I will probably have to call in all the vendors who are selling especially bread and dog food – because when you come to the edge of the road and you’re selling and somebody stops to buy – you’re blocking up the whole traffic and you’re also interrupting a whole lot of other things.”
The minster stated that they (Government) will have to find a solution to this issue since they do not want to interrupt economic activities for persons trying to make a living during the COVID-19 pandemic, but at the same time they do not want to encourage “lawlessness” or an unregulated, uncontrollable environment.
“… I’ll probably have to get all the vendors in, talk to them about how we could get things done better and ensure that they can make a living and we can get compliance.”