GEORGETOWN vendors from several sections of both Stabroek and Bourda Markets have recently been expressing frustration with the existing situation in the areas where they work.Many are complaining of recurring problems, from issues with the absence of appropriate security to sanitation. According to the vendors, the Georgetown municipal authorities are continuously turning a blind eye to their plight.

Small business owners are also raising the issue of the Georgetown City Council and the City Constabulary’s inability to effectively protect their businesses, located at Bourda and Stabroek Markets. They are constantly under pressure after incurring losses from theft and sometimes even floods after heavy rainfall.

According to Bourda Market vendor, Loranie Rampersaud, the situation is a problem they have been having for years. Despite numerous reports, nothing is being done to help with the state of the market.
Rampersuad said: “The drains in this market always overflow when it rains, and the roof also leaks. They should come to the market when it rains to see the conditions. The gutters also smell, which is not healthy; not to mention the lack of security. We are always getting robbed outside, and the stalls get broken into at this market.”
Other stallholders spoke about the routine response to their requests for services from the council, which was that there is no money with which to respond to those requests.

According to the Bourda Market vendors, some of the primary problems affecting the market include vulnerability to theft, leakages that sometimes result in spoilage, routine garbage collection, and the list goes on.

Another Bourda Market vendor, Artie Latchman, voiced her displeasure at having to operate under almost intolerable and unsanitary conditions. She said: “Sewage continuously flows in several occupied areas within these facilities.”

Similar complaints were aired at the Stabroek Market, where vendors strongly believe that the Georgetown City Council is not holding its end of the bargain as far as providing stallholders with the services they should acquire under the tenancy agreement.

The stallholders, most of whom are in the food retail business, told this newspaper that given their compliance with the terms of their tenancy agreement with the council, there are far too many occasions on which requests for repairs, better security and various other services have been denied.

“They are acting like we don’t exist, and treating us as if we are begging them to sell at the place. Only last week somebody got rob, and the police did not even do anything,” a stallholder who declined to be identified, said.
Vendors expressed that the continued presence of loiterers, many of whom can be found at the main entrance of the facility, is for the most part what encourages such an unsafe environment.

“We want a constant presence and vigilance of the police or Constabulary Department here, under the big clock, where all these thieves and illegal businesses occur; and even if they are arrested, give them a day or two and they are back at doing the same thing,” said a clothes vendor who goes by the name Aunty Penny.

Additionally, concerns were expressed about the welfare of consumers and commuters who traverse the area in the adjacent bus parks.

“Every time someone comes through those gates, there is a cluster of men harassing them, asking them if they buying gold or selling gold.

Sometimes when people gold jewellery get snatch, the thieves come right here under the clock, or in some corner, and sell it to these very men,” said yet another stallholder, who requested that his identity be withheld.

With respect to the situation at Bourda and Stabroek Markets, the Mayor and City Council had requested that the police assist by sending patrols on a more regular basis, and they are working on finding workable solutions for the plight faced by the vendors and consumers alike.
Written By Tash Van Doimen