COUNCILLOR Roopnarine Persaud on Monday offered that barbers and cosmetologists of Merriman Mall are permitted to return to the streets to ply their trade by City Hall officers although the Council would have decided against this.

When the issue came up at the statutory meeting, Mayor Patricia Chase-Green insisted on calling a meeting with the technicians shortly to make clear to them that plying their trade on the streets will not be tolerated at any cost.

“We make a decision here and then the [council] administration goes out and makes another. That’s a problem we have to sort out. People are doing what they’re permitted to do,” Councillor Persaud remarked.

He charged that whenever these individuals are approached, they refer to the many contracts they have at City Hall. The Mayor concurred with Persaud’s observations and referred to reports that city constables, and even some councillors, are encouraging people to return to the streets.
She noted that she was in possession of information that one vendor approached the Office of the President for help because he was afraid of victimization by city constables.

The Council had decided that the Merriman Mall vendors would be given six months to remain at the Merriman Mall location, after which they will have to find a place to relocate. In the meantime, Mayor Patricia Chase-Green complained that such technicians have returned to certain streets, including America Street, to ply their trade.

Although Councillor Carlyle Goring stood up to ask the council to take the technicians’ socio economic conditions into consideration, Councillor Malcolm Ferreira noted that they should also take the health and wellbeing of others into account.

“They’re testing us. We giving them an inch and they want to take a yard,” Ferreira pointed out.

Ferreira said he is in full support of moving the vendors off of Merriman Mall permanently and that this was a good opportunity to demonstrate to them that the M&CC means what it says regarding public health. Councillor Oscar Clarke is advocating that the barbers and cosmetologists come together and rent a building so that they can continue to work.
“They have demonstrated that they don’t want to be on Merriman Mall by returning to the streets. We have to be strong or else we would be taken advantage of,” Clarke stated.

Another Councillor,Bishram Kuppen,said although it is not the City Council’s responsibility to provide a place for the technicians, the council should provide some kind of assistance to them.