City Hall in move to regularise vending at Stabroek Market

Apr 21, 2022 News

Kaieteur News – The Georgetown Mayor and City Council (M&CC) on Wednesday commenced reguarlising vending around the Stabroek Market and its immediate environs.
This comes days after Attorney General (AG) Anil Nandlall SC issued a warning that the Council should get its act together or the government will take charge of vending in the city. The AG had accused the Council of legitimising vending on State reserves.

Mayor of Georgetown, Ubraj Narine along with Acting Town Clerk, Candace Nelson yesterday at the clean up exercise.

He said vendors have been allowed to take over the streets, parapets and sidewalks for a small fee. To this end, the AG had warned the M&CC that if it fails to act on curbing this practice, the government will be forced to take control of the city streets. Nandlall noted that while encumbering of state reserves is not limited to Georgetown, the issue is by far more widespread in the city. He therefore blamed the Georgetown Council for legitimising the practice by accepting a fee from persons for their continued occupation of the reserves.
“…While the Government is expending a tremendous amount of time and resources in trying to clean the city and its environs, a venture that the City Council has publicly refused to join hands on, they exacerbate the problem by licencing to create these public nuisances.” “We simply cannot continue in this way…The use of these roads causes serious traffic hazards, traffic congestions, and public inconvenience.” Nandlall said.
The cleanup exercise at Stabroek Market led by the City Council, in collaboration with the Guyana Fire Service, the Guyana Police Force and the Ministry of Public Works comes weeks after Nandlall spoke on the issue. Acting Town Clerk of the Georgetown M&CC, Candace Nelson told this publication on Wednesday that apart from cleaning the market area “We will also be moving to prevent persons from occupying the roads which is impeding the free flow of traffic at this area.”
The Town Clerk explained that the Council will be marking off the area so that the road can remain clear and accessible to commuters. “So we have today we have with us a collaboration between the fire service, the Guyana Police Force, M&CC, and the Ministry of Public Works, who will all be assisting in ensuring that this area is clean and after today vending will be regularised, and we should see a free flow of traffic around the area,” she said.

Scenes from yesterday’s clean up exercise at Stabroek market area.

Nelson clarified that the exercise is not to move vendors from their spot, but to demarcate and create boundaries in the area so as to ensure that everybody can do business without congestion.
“As it is right now, we find that persons are protruding on the road, the structures are not what are authorized by the City Council and it’s impeding the free flow traffic, so we will be marking off the areas so that they stick within their boundaries,” the Town Clerk disclosed. While vendors in front of the market will be placed within the boundaries, Nelson said that those who are situated at the Stabroek square, where the police outpost and public washroom is located, will have to move.
“There are some persons within this area, who are not given permission to vend by the M&CC, for example we have vending on the Stabroek square which is prohibited, we do not allow vending on the Stabroek square. Those persons will have to be removed because we never gave them permission to be there,” she related.
During the exercise, one vendor had his entire stall dismantled by the Council. The Town Clerk explained that the vendor had been warned to remove his stall before the demolition. According to her, given the vendor’s refusal, the Council was forced to take the necessary steps to have the structure removed.
While some unauthorised vendors were reluctant to move their stalls, others cooperated with the Council. Speaking briefly with Kaieteur News at the cleanup exercise, Mayor of Georgetown, Ubraj Narine said that the initiative was something the Council would have planned since last year September.
Recently, a similar initiative was undertaken by the City Council at the Bourda market and its environs. The Mayor explained that “We are not removing any vendors, we want our vendors to be neat, clean and organized and as long we have that we will work with our vendors to see that they get their bread and butter in the right way. If they don’t comply with the cleanup campaign, action will be taken by the council.” Yesterday’s clean up exercise was conducted between Schumacher Street to the Stabroek Market Bazaar, the Mayor said efforts will continue in the coming weeks in other areas; as they will be regularising vending along Water Street as well at other market squares…