–Town Clerk
TOWN Clerk Royston King on Monday described the Kitty Market as ‘unsafe and ruinous’, and called on City Councillors to make a decision as to whether or not the 46 vendors there would be relocated.

Addressing the municipality’s fortnightly statutory meeting at City Hall, King observed that the Kitty Market vendors are in harm’s way.

The market, sitting on the corner of Barr and Alexander Streets in Kitty, Georgetown, has, time and again, been described as an “eye sore,” as an “accident waiting to happen,” and as a “threat to life and limb”.

King further informed that the City Council is trying to locate some research done years ago on the structural soundness of the market, and is still to decide whether it will proceed to restore the market through a public/private partnership or will go it alone.

“Council has to decide if we will relocate the vendors. They are in harm’s way,” he said.

Officials have always said that the restoration of the market is still on the cards of the M&CC, but has often cited lack of finances to move the process forward.

The original intention was for the architectural design of the market to be retained so that it can be restored to its exact original appearance, but it is not clear if this is still the intention of the M&CC.

Deputy Mayor Patricia Chase-Green told this newspaper in the past that, to her knowledge, the undertaking was at a standstill because then Town Clerk Carol Sooba had failed to implement certain decisions that were taken by Council with respect to the market.

According to Chase-Green, the Council wanted the job to go to public tender so that anyone who was interested in rehabilitating the entire structure, or at least portions of it, could have come forward with a proposal which the Markets and Public Health Committee would have reviewed.

She said the Kitty Market remains a source of worry because vendors are still there plying their trade.

Stallholders have, time and again, made known their concerns, and have demanded that urgent measures be put in place to save the edifice.

On one occasion, the vendors had pointed out that many of them depend on the market for their livelihoods and they are quite frustrated at the circumstances under which they are forced to do business.

The stallholders are of the view that the present state of the market was due to the willful neglect of Council over many years.

The vendors claimed they have formed a committee and had written several letters to then President Donald Ramotar; former Minister of Local Government, Ganga Persaud; Mayor Hamilton Green; and Sooba, pleading for help.

They declared they are “fed up” of hearing action will be taken, and demand that a decision be made for immediate works to start, as the state of the market is driving customers away.