GEORGETOWN Mayor Patricia Chase-Green has said that the Markets Public Health Committee of the City Council has to be more proactive in formulating a policy that will cater for the relocation of vendors at the Parliament View Mall to a more suitable location.To date, vendors have no clue where they will be relocated, and officials, too, although having brainstormed some ideas, have nothing solid to work with. Town Clerk Royston King had tasked the said committee with coming up with a plan, but so far, nothing has been forthcoming from it.

A further extension was granted recently for the vendors to remain on the plot of land south of the Public Buildings until December.

“We have until December to relocate the vendors. We cannot wait for a once-a-month meeting to deal with it. We have already completed three months and we would have done nothing in the three months. We have to be more proactive in doing what we have to do and if you can’t do it, I will have to call the administration on board to get it done,” Chase-Green told city councillors.

“We have to have something on board,” she continued, adding, “But you’re elected and you proposed that you have a policy document to deal with vending and therefore you have to come up with one…at least some ideas of what you want in the policy. We have to go to the government, or to the banks, or somewhere to deal with how we move forward. We have to start somewhere, because vending in front of the Stabroek Market is a no no.”

The Markets Public Health Committee is made up of Chairman Lionel Hanoman-Jaikarran; Deputy Mayor Sherod Duncan; Councillors Bishram Kuppen, Trichria Richards, Malcolm Ferreira, Andrea Marks, and Yvonne Ferguson.

Meanwhile, the Town Clerk had disclosed that the City Council explored the ideas of installing a double-deck on the ‘Bourda Green’ and extending the Stabroek Market in order to accommodate the ultimate relocation of the said vendors.
“We have received an extension at Parliament View Mall that will go until December. Again, I wish to publicly announce my gratitude to the owner for his support and understanding of our efforts at the M&CC,” King had said.

“We are not in any way attempting to take bread from anyone, but we’re trying to organise the city in a way that will make it (comparable to) modern cities and that would allow it to stand shoulder to shoulder with the great cities of the world,” he said.

The Town Clerk said he is hoping at the expiration of this extension not to have to seek any further extensions, and that a policy from the Public Health and Markets Committee would be made available.

“There are several options on the table. We are looking at a double-decker in Bourda Green, and we’re looking at the extension of the Stabroek Market, among others.”

The mayor had said she hopes there would be no need to apply for a further extension of the life of the Parliament View Mall, because of the trauma and stress the City Hall team had endured to secure this extension.

“The owner has his own development (plans) for that area, and we would not want to stop development in Georgetown based on our own inadequacy of not providing proper vending areas for vendors,” the mayor observed.

She said it was disappointing that when a meeting was called on the issue, all the members of the Markets and Public Health Committee did not turn up.

“Maybe they had other commitments, but we have to be proactive in this; we cannot sit down. We sat down for the three months, and were not able at the end of the three months to come up with one suggestion. If we were forced to remove those vendors at the end of August, where would we put them?

“The Markets Public Health Committee said they wanted to do a policy so (that) at the end of the three months, we would have been able to do something. The end of the three months is here, and we have done nothing! We are lucky that we were able to have an extension,” she said.