ONE week after the Deputy Mayor of Georgetown and Public Health and Markets Committee intervened and called on the administration of City Hall to move with all due haste to relocate vendors on the Stabroek Market wharf, operating under a section of the roof that continues to hang precariously, no positive action has been taken and vendors are in a quandary.

Instead, what has happened is that Council, on Friday, arbitrarily put up a sign warning, “DANGER! No Person Beyond this Point”. The vendors were not given any time frame within which to remove. They know not where they are supposed to go alternatively, and for how long. Neither were they given any indication as to how early repairs to the roof will commence.
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It is implied that the instruction or compliance with the sign takes immediate effect. But, with no place to go, the vendors have been forced to remain at their legitimate places of operation, despite the sign posted and the imminent danger involved.

The deputy mayor was on Friday unavailable for a comment. However, another official commented that it is crassly absurd and unacceptable that Council should put up such a sign without a structured reference to alternative spaces and the ultimate relocation of vendors.

“There must first be an engagement of all the stakeholders involved, and a structured approach to the allocation of alternative spaces be put in place. Merely putting up a sign does not excuse the administration from liability in the event someone loses life or limb as a result of falling beams from the roof,” the official said.

Meanwhile, no notice has been given speed boat operatives who continue to moor alongside the wharf and directly below the dangerously hanging contraption.

The situation at issue began with the collapse of a section of the derelict Stabroek Market wharf on September 16 last. The section which gave away did not come down completely, but propped upon a stall on the wharf, remains hanging dangerously, threatening to touch ground at any moment.

Because of the derelict condition of the wharf, it has been considered unsafe for vendors and customers to continue to use that section of the facility.

This newspaper has been reliably informed that the City Engineer’s Department recently met with the Ministry of Works and that the ministry has offered assistance. The city engineer is reported to have said that the estimate has been submitted to the Town Clerk, and therefore, together with the Ministry of Public Works, they were going to discuss a project in an effort to effect repairs to the wharf.

But the Deputy Mayor, Ms. Patricia Chase- Green and Chairman of the Market and Public Health Committee, Mr. Ranwell Jordan, are adamant that the latter committee has not been involved in the dialogue and has been completely ignored.

Green argued that, regardless of what assistance might be forthcoming and from where, it has to go through the statutory committee, thence to the full Council for decisions to be made. That committee alluded to, is the Markets and Public Health Committee.

“We ought to have met to deal with this matter and that has not happened. The Council has to make all decisions on the way forward,” Green reiterated.

Meanwhile, Chairman Ranwell Jordan has argued that, until Council would have relocated the vendors, the administration will have to accept liability for any accidents or injuries that may happen on the wharf. “I want to believe that Council will have to accept liability, because Council is aware of the state and position of the wharf and it is Council’s responsibility to effect repairs,” he earlier told the Guyana Chronicle while on a tour of the Stabroek Market wharf.

(By Shirley Thomas)