Vending is out of control

Dec 14, 2022 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

Kaieteur News – This present situation with illegal vending was long in the making. Unlawful vending has been encouraged for so long that those who are operating illegally are of the view that they have a right to vend on the parapets, pavements and in front of businesses.

Vendors are now of the opinion that because they have been given approval to vend and because they pay a cleaning fee to the municipality that this legitimizes their operations. It does not. Most pavement vending is illegal but there is no authority to stop it and the situation is now fully out of control and may have reached the point of no return.

The City Council must assume full responsibility for this terrible state of affairs. For decades, the City Council has failed to put an end to illegal vending. If anything, by its actions and inactions, one can say that the Council has done more to encourage illegal vending than to discourage it.

The situation at the corner of King and Regent Streets is an example how disastrous the situation has become. This junction is one block away from the Georgetown City Hall, yet at this single junction, the vendors are encroaching on the roadway, sections of the pavement has been co-opted for vending and one business owner has extended his business right onto the pavement.

It is not as if the hands of the City Council are tied. The perimeter of City Hall has always been off limits to vending. No one dares to vend on the pavements alongside City Hall. This shows that City Hall has the capacity to limit pavement and roadside vending.

Along Regent Street, there is an early morning food vendor with a tent that encroaches on the roadways. Then there is practice of persons driving up in motor vehicles – canters and cars – and vending out of these.

At the markets, the situation has become unmanageable. The inside of the markets have been reduced to graveyards with less persons entering the market each year on account of the fact that there are so many vendors plying their trade outside of the markets.

People are now of the opinion that they can simply go and prop themselves anywhere to sell. And most of these vendors are not poor people. The stocks that they have amount to millions of dollars; some of the caravans and canters costs millions. However, illegal vendors feel that they have a right to come and sell in front of your business without paying taxes or overheads.

The situation outside of the Georgetown Public Hospital is a nightmare. There are vendors on one side of New Market Street and a no-parking area on the side. As such, vehicles park alongside the vendors, further narrowing the road. If you are in a hurry, avoid going anywhere near that hospital. The situation outside Woodlands and Balwant Singh Hospitals are also following the pattern outside the Georgetown Public Hospital.

Action is needed. But the action cannot be confined simply to the hospital and to the pavement and roadside vending. The biggest culprit in creating disorder in Guyana is the Central Housing and Planning Authority.

The city of Georgetown is too small for the businesses which are being authorized. Commercial buildings must now be limited in the city because not only is it creating unmanageable congestion but it is also causing traffic woes as far as Annandale. The traffic authorities are now being forced to use three lanes on the East Coast Public Road during morning peak hours. This is because of the heavy traffic entering the city.

The government should not grant any more permission for converting former residential properties to commercial properties. The expansion of commerce in the city should be halted and new commercial zones should be created outside of the city.

This is called urban planning and someone said that President Irfaan Ali has a doctorate in the subject. Regulating illegal vending is also part of urban planning and if the City Hall is going to be obstacle to regulating illegal vending, then the government has no choice but to strip City Hall of the powers it now claims to exercise over pavements, parapets and streets.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of this newspaper and its affiliates.)

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Vending is out of control

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