Vendors decry state of La Penitence Market

Feb 13, 2014 News

---

—but Deputy Mayor insists rehabilitative works in the pipeline

While some vendors are convinced that the La Penitence Market has been receiving the least attention from the Mayor and City Council of Georgetown (M&CC) in recent years, Deputy Mayor, Patricia Chase-Greene, yesterday said that rehabilitative works are slated to be conducted this year.

She disclosed, too, that Council had last undertaken partial works on the roof of the market around 2011-2012 but admitted that nothing further was done.
Chase-Greene, said yesterday, that although a decision was taken by Council to repair the roof under the tenure of then City Engineer, Gregory Erskine, only the back section was done.
“We had a lot of complaints from vendors about the roof and so the intention was to repair the entire roof but that wasn’t done. We have plans to look at that this year,” assured the Deputy Mayor.
However, such a realisation is left to be seen given the usual cash-strapped status of the city municipality.
The Deputy Mayor’s comments on the market were in fact prompted by this publication following discussions with some of the vendors earlier this week.
In fact vendors, operating out of the municipal market, are convinced that they are being neglected by the M&CC, the very entity that they are required to pay a prompt monthly rental for their stalls.
Several of the vendors who spoke with this publication disclosed that not only has the municipality failed to undertake needful maintenance work but it has even been years since any official visited to meet with stallholders.
Chase-Greene is however certain that officials do visit routinely.
Some of the vendors collectively disclosed that “they always sending to collect the rent promptly…in November they (are) collecting for two months, November and December, but yet they ain’t doing anything for we here.”
And one of the primary concerns faced by the vendors is that of the porous roof which they claim is especially disastrous when it rains.
One man who is arguably the oldest vendor at the market disclosed that the only remedial work he can recall being done at the market was when the zinc sheets were replaced at the back of the market.

But the irony to that move, he noted, is that there is less vending at the back when compared to that at the front of the market.
This publication noted that construction works on a number of stalls, at the back of the market appear to have been abandoned.
According to another vendor, who preferred to be identified only as Ross, he has been plying his vending trade at the front section of the market for over three decades. He does not recall any work being done to improve the facility other that the partial roof works.
He said that the market is in dire need of a facelift. With a facelift Ross is confident that more customers would be inclined to venture inside the market rather than merely see it from the outside.
He is convinced that the “biggest concern” is the state of the market which results in “too few customers.”
“If this market looks better I believe people will come in, and if they come in they will see that it has plenty to offer…clothes, groceries, meat…all kinds of things,” said Ross.
However, meat vendor, Ms. Bacchus, is not too confident that there is hope. According to her although back in the day the market was a thriving one, in terms of customers, many have since moved away from the area.
She believes that some of the former customers are now residing in “far-off” areas such as Diamond, East Bank Demerara, and the West Coast and West Bank of Demerara.
“Business is slow, slow here; I don’t know how we can recover from this,” said the woman as she sat in an isolated section of the market.
This publication understands that a few hundred vendors have stalls in the market but several of these stalls were closed when this publication visited the facility sometime after noon Monday.
On Monday, too, the area designated to house fish vendors was empty, save for three kittens, although this publication was informed that there is usually one vendor who operates there during the week and about three at the weekend.
The market is usually open to the public from 07:00 hours to 16:00 hours daily. Roadside vending is permitted on Sunday.
Mr Chow, who has been a vendor for more than two decades, conceded that the relevant authority has not been kind to vendors at the La Penitence Market.

“All the time the Stabroek Market and Bourda Market (are) getting all the attention, but what about this market?” The man is worried that should no effort be made to improve the state of the market there is a possibility that it could reach the state of the dilapidated Kitty Market.
Like a few of the other city markets, vagrants are usually seen near the entrance of the La Penitence market, which certainly doesn’t help to improve the appearance of the facility.”
For most of the vendors their operation at the market is their only source of income, which they claim they cannot afford to lose. “If we didn’t need this we would have long gone,” said another vendor as he hung his head in evident despair over the situation.
According to the vendors they are only calling on the municipality to do simple things such as repairing the roof of the market and if possible designate a suitable area for parking which could be convenient for vendors as well as customers.
According to Chase-Greene the subject of parking has also been gaining the attention of the municipality. It is the belief of the Deputy Mayor that when the markets in the city were constructed many years ago no thought was given to parking since there weren’t too many people privileged to drive then.
“Now we have, in my estimation, one in every 10 persons driving and there isn’t enough parking…we are looking at this throughout the city,” added Chase-Greene.
In order to address the parking situation, she is hopeful that the Central Housing and Planning Authority will seek to adopt a proposal that recommends that all “high-rise” building put in place a flat for parking.
In turning her attention back to the La Penitence Market, Chase-Greene said that the municipality will also be directing attention to ensuring that vending activities are confined, particularly on Sunday.
She is convinced that the economic state of many people in the society today sees an increased number of persons vending beyond an established boundary which results in a great section of a major roadway being blocked.
“We have to look at the possibility of even removing this activity altogether,” added Chase-Greene.

---

---