TOWN Clerk Royston King has ordered the clerk of markets not to collect any rent from vendors plying their trade in the vicinity of the Stabroek Market wharf, due to the deplorable conditions which exist there.

He made the decision to no longer collect the rent since last week, King told the Guyana Chronicle in an invited comment at City Hall earlier this week.
“The area is very unsafe and unhealthy, and I have instructed the clerk of markets not to collect any rent from the people operating there because it is not a situation we are proud of. And they are really not doing any business there,” King said.

He said the Mayor and City Council (M&CC) is also working on a plan to relocate the vendors even before the Public Health and Markets Committee pronounces on the matter.
The said committee has been tasked, for more than two years now, with coming up with a policy that would not only guide the relocation of Stabroek Market vendors, but also address any vendor-related issues the municipality may have.

Even as some 500 vendors are to be affected by the rehabilitation of the Stabroek Market wharf, the M&CC has not yet released any concrete information about where they will be relocated.
A number of areas have been identified by the town clerk and the Public Health and Markets Committee, but it is not clear which one will be able to accommodate the 500 vendors who were identified during a walk-through by city officials.

“There is no concrete solution; no clear understanding of how the project will go forward,” a source told the Guyana Chronicle recently. In fact, the source said that while the committee was tasked with finding suitable relocation spots, the town clerk has also found one on his own.

King had indicated in the past that the vendors would be relocated to the area west of the Public Buildings, but Mayor Patricia Chase-Green had subsequently said that not all of the vendors can be accommodated there. She said that other places are still being looked at, and that the municipality has not yet decided where the rest of the vendors will be placed.

The mayor had, at one point, lamented on the Markets Public Health Committee’s ‘lack-lustre’ approach to the relocation of the vendors. Chairman of the said committee, former Deputy Mayor Lionel Jaikarran, has since resigned from that position, but no one has yet been named to succeed him.

The mayor had feared that should no action be taken about relocating the vendors, the money the government has set aside for it could be redirected. “We have to be very vigilant and very alert, and ensure that that market rehabilitation is not prolonged, because of the lackadaisical way in which we approach the relocation of vendors,” she said.

Approximately $400M is reportedly to be spent on rehabilitating the dilapidated wharf, King had said. He’s also noted that the unsightly structure is soon to be torn down and replaced with a mall-like facility, complete with a boardwalk and entertainment area.
“Vendors ought not to worry, as they will be given first preference to return, once the project has been completed,” he had said, adding:

“However, due to the modernisation, the vendors will be asked to pay a little more rent.”
The portion of the stelling which faces the Demerara River has, for years, been an eyesore for the thousands who use the speedboat service every day. The collapse of a portion of the roof some years ago, however, did not deter vendors from conducting business there.
“The facility is not only an eyesore; it is ruinous and dangerous to the health and lives of persons who use it,” King said.