–over unsavoury conditions at Mackenzie wharf

VENDORS occupying stalls on the Mackenzie Wharf on Monday bashed the Linden Mayor and Town Council for ignoring their pleas for help. They are of the opinion that the Council does not care about their daily struggles in grappling with the deplorable conditions of the wharf that are affecting their sales tremendously.
Doing business on a wharf that has a dump site only a few feet away from some vendors, which results in an unbearable foul smell, infestation of flies and other insects in addition to men making it a public urinal, and vagrants making it their personal toilet facility with faeces being their welcome mat on most days, are just a fraction of the complaints the vendors vented to this publication on Monday. **
In tears, one visibly frustrated clothes vendor, whose stall is the closest to the dump site and where men and vagrants would relieve themselves, told this publication that he’s made several reports to the administrative manager at the Mayor and Town Council, but to no avail.
All he’s gotten, he says, are promises to visit the wharf to see first-hand what the vendors are experiencing.

BUSINESS SLOW
Because of the stench and the state of the market, he said, business is slow; and whatever little money they manage to make all go back into buying detergents to clean up the place.
“I am so frustrated about the situation, is like I don’t know what more to do,” he said.
“Dozens and dozens of men does come here and pee every day, and when you talk, they not listening. In the morning when you come, yuh seeing faeces all over because here is the night toilet.
“No proper security; no lighting. Is two times they break meh shop already! This place is a mess!
“And every day Town Council sending people to collect rates.”
Elmo Austin, who operates a pharmacy there, told this newspaper that because the entire area is unhealthy, sales are not coming in.
“I don’t mind the urine,” he said, “but people would go and mess a whole lump of mess.”
Shaking his head in frustration, Elmo said:
“People are wicked! There is a guy that is not too right in the head that would just come and drag himself on the ground when he messes, and we have to clean it up.

‘NOT A CENT!’
“Some days I go home, not a cent! It is very very hard!”
Desmond Richards, a ground provision and dry goods vendor who has been selling for decades, says all the Council cares about is collecting revenue and not the insanitary conditions under which the vendors operate.
Wharf vendors, he said, pay the highest rates in the entire Linden but are experiencing the worst conditions. Richards also spoke of the hire cars blocking the entrance of the wharf, despite knowing the facility is private parking only.
“We are suffering; persons coming till from Georgetown and selling right in front of us on the road, illegally blocking our sales; constables all does buy from them,” Richard said, while cautioning that one ought to be careful when walking before falling through the rotten boards.
Similar frustrations were echoed by Shondell, a single-mother of seven, whose only means of earning a living is by selling ‘greens’.

EMPTY PROMISES
She said that all the Council does is make empty promises, as she had made representation for the vendors at a market consultation early last year and in spite of the many promises, nothing was ever done. “The lights are not working, the roof leaking, the gutters falling out…
“We ain’t get proper security; we ain’t get proper drinking water… In the morning you would come and see urine, mess, vomit all things at the corner there,” Shondell said, adding:
“Some days you come in and you barely sell $5000, but you can’t give up. This is my daily bread; this is how I provide for me and my seven kids.
“When rain falls, if you don’t sweep the water from the floor, it stays right there. The fencing from around the wharf? That done!
“When dem children come, yuh have to watch them all the time, because they could fall over board and nobody won’t know.”
She also spoke out on the many persons allowed to vend on the road while they were removed and are sabotaging sales of the wharf vendors who have to pay daily.
“If you don’t pay that money, it gon mount up; then they will send a receipt and put a padlock on your shop.”
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Carl Greenidge and Minister of Communities, Valerie Patterson last February, during a ministerial outreach while campaigning for Local Government Elections in Linden met with the market vendors, who voiced these same concerns.
Minister Greenidge told the media at the time that even though his portfolio does not include market reorganisation, he will be making recommendations on behalf of the vendors to the Minister of Local Government.
“I will call upon the Minister of Local Government to make arrangements to prepare a revised plan of the market, which will take into account the concerns of the current vendors,” posited the Minister.
A few weeks after being sworn into office, the new Council did a market consultation and also heard of the plight of the wharf vendors.
As usual, promises were made to bring relief to the vendors, but to date, their situation remains the same.