THE Georgetown Mayor and City Council (M&CC) is in the process of assessing the flea market initiative, at Bourda, given that vendors at the Parliament View Market continue to shun the project.Speaking to the Guyana Chronicle during a telephone interview on Sunday Public Relations Officer (PRO), Debra Lewis indicated that they are currently assessing the situation, given that they have been cordoning off the area between Alexander Street and Orange Walk on Regent Street every week since the decision was made two weeks ago.

“This is just a pilot project and we are waiting to see what happens before we make a conclusion on the matter,” said Lewis. When this publication visited the area, vendors were nowhere to be seen once again but constables of the City Constabulary were out there in their numbers, and the area was barricaded so as to prevent vehicles from traversing within that space.

Meanwhile, it was recently reported in the Guyana Chronicle that vendors at Parliament View Market, however, had resented the idea, complaining that, among other things, it was too costly to move their items from the old Royal Castle site to the Bourda location.

Last Sunday was the first day that the market was expected to be opened, and when Mayor Patricia Chase-Green turned up on the site to see how things were progressing she was “amazed” to see the unsightly conditions that existed at the intended location, and was angry that despite orders were given to have the street cordoned off, the traffic wardens on site would report to her that Chief Constable Andrew Foo directed that this be done only when it became necessary.

“There were cars parked on both sides of the street; there were social rejects still sleeping on the pavements at 10:30 in the morning outside of the Bourda Cemetery,” the mayor said at a meeting of the council last week. “I saw the traffic wardens and asked them why the street was not cordoned off. I was informed that they were instructed by the Chief Constable to only cordon off the street if necessary, or as the vending built up. “Now, I don’t know who could have changed the directive. If the Town Clerk instructed the Clerk of Markets and the Chief Constable about the decision, then the market area to be cordoned off should have been done either by 5 or 6 in the morning and the area properly cleaned…”