Rose Hall street vendors calling on municipality to rethink vending policy

The Rose Hall Town (RHT) Municipality has given street vendors until Wednesday to make their vending stalls mobile.

However, vendors operating along Arch Road in Rose Hall Town are calling on the municipality to rethink its vending policy, and are resisting a deadline given by the Town Council to comply. Rose Hall Town Mayor Vijay Kumar Ram has said that all those who do not comply by Thursday will have their stalls removed. The vendors have also been told they must redesign their stalls, or it will be removed.
On February 26 last, the Municipality issued notices to the vendors indicating that, at its statutory meeting, a decision was taken for the vendors who operate in the vicinity of the market and along Arch Road to use movable stalls. According to the notice, this is to prevent the vendors from leaving encumbrances on the Council’s Reserve after they would have concluded selling for the day. The notice informed that the vendors had one month to comply.

Another notice issued to the vendors invited them to attend a meeting on March 27 to discuss permanent selling structures on the Council’s reserve.
At that meeting, the June 1 deadline was given to comply. On Monday, the vendors took their case to Regional Prime Ministerial Representative Gobin Harbhajan. However, Harbhajan did not meet with the delegation at his office, but went on site, where they were allowed to air their views.
One vendor, Leroy Punch, has deemed not feeble the council’s proposal to have moveable structures erected.
“I made a stall with wheels over seven years ago, and one morning I came and met it in the middle of the road, and one time I came and met it till down the road there. The only thing I can see is chaos, because when them men smoke their joint and drink their rum, you are going to find these stands all over the place, and we will have some serious problems,” Punch said.
Another vendor, Purshotum Ramkumar, complained that some of those who live in RHT will be able to take away their stalls after vending, but others will have nowhere to park theirs.
“Some of us might be fortunate because we might have a relative (living in the town), or somewhere else where we can leave (our stalls) in the afternoon. Most of the vendors are from out of the town. At the meeting, we were asking them what alternative they have for people who are willing to wheel the stall off, but need somewhere to place it, and they could not answer,” Ramkumar said.
Ramkumar said most of the vendors have had to fortify the road shoulder in order to erect their stalls, and since the Municipality collects a monthly fee from them, what might be a “win win situation” would be for the vendors to be allowed to install unique stalls.
Another vendor explained that she has been on the road shoulder vending for several years, and now her husband is jobless following the Rose Hall Estate’s closure.
She told this publication that threats by the Municipality cannot be taken lightly. “I don’t know what I am going to do. Is $6,000 a month they want from us; (which) we would have to pay, whether you sell or not.”
Meanwhile, Ratnama Singh related that she had been ill and away from the street for one month, and upon her return, she was told that she would have to pay a revenue for the period, despite her absence.
“And they had somebody else selling on the spot all the time,” she said.
Harbhajan, in response, said there was not much he could do, but noted that he also discussed the issue with the Mayor.
However, Mayor Vijay Kumar Ram told the Guyana Times that there will be no compromise, and those who do not comply will not be allowed to vend. (Andrew Carmichael)