–says Merriman Mall vendors can stay

ALTHOUGH adamant that the barbers and cosmetologists ought to relocate from the Merriman Mall in Georgetown due to public health issues, the Mayor and City Council (M&CC) has said that it now wants to improve the environment for such practitioners.

At last week’s statutory meeting at City Hall, Town Clerk, Mr Royston King informed councillors that the municipality is working to “reshape” the aesthetics and general environment of the portion of Merriman Mall used by the beauticians.

M&CC Public Relations Officer, Ms. Debra Lewis told the Guyana Chronicle on Monday that although the deadline for such persons to remove was July 31, a number of them visited City Hall to ask for an extension.

According to Lewis, it was subsequently decided that new stalls would be built for them at the very location, in partnership with a contractor.  Lewis said this new initiative will not come on stream for this year, which means that in the meantime, the practitioners will be allowed to continue there. She, however, said that they are being monitored by environmental health officers.

The Engineer’s Department has since designed an artist’s impression of what the new stalls will look like. The Engineer’s Department has since designed an artist’s impression of what the new stalls will look like.

Meanwhile, although the barbers and cosmetologists of the Merriman Mall are very vocal whenever the M&CC talks of removing them, only 13 out of 35 of them were actually found working there when Mayor Patricia Chase-Green paid a visit earlier this year.

Chase-Green had complained that the practitioners were being helped by some councillors and constabulary officers to ply their trade on the streets, which is against the laws. She had promised to deal with the chief constable and anyone found guilty of relocating the practitioners to the streets.

Chase-Green had often said in the past that the City Council has a ‘no-tolerance’ approach to barbers and cosmetologists operating in open spaces, such as the Merriman Mall.