VENDORS plying their trade at the dangerously dilapidated Stabroek Market Wharf have until this Thursday to remove from the area, even as the Mayor and City Council (MCC) is still preparing the Stabroek Market Square area where the vendors are expected to be relocated.

The vendors were served with notices on August 30, last, informing them that they had 14 days during which to remove from the area “because of the threat to life and limb.”

The relocation had been in the works for some time now as the wharf continues to deteriorate. The MCC had committed to prepare a section of the Stabroek Market Square, previously occupied as the 42 bus park, to accommodate the vendors.

However, works are still ongoing at the area and it is not yet ready for the vendors. And, Mayor Patricia Chase-Green has pointed out that even when the area is completed it will not be able to provide the vendors with every amenity they previously enjoyed.

“Vendors will have to understand that while it is a temporary arrangement they’re being placed in, we cannot accommodate everything that is being stored right now on the wharf. All of that stuff can’t come out. There are seamstresses and tailors out there I’m not quite certain, at this point in time, if we can find place on the street for them because you have to find electricity, I don’t know how they’re going to get that but we still have to make contact with them and talk to them to see how best we can,” explained the Mayor on Monday last, at the MCC’s most recent statutory meeting.

“I am working with the vendors to ensure that nobody is deprived of a livelihood by a decision I take. At a statutory meeting, we have agreed on a certain course of action where we try to find space to relocate those persons who are in immediate need or are in immediate danger, so let’s not change that course of action.”

According to the MCC Public Relations Officer Debra Lewis, most of the vendors have already complied and removed from the area, with only a few remaining.

She could not give a definite time when the 42 Bus Park area will be completed for the vendors to relocate, but said, despite that, it is too dangerous for the vendors to stay at the wharf waiting for the area to be completed.

“We served them notices. They know that the place has been in a state of disrepair for some time… they have to think of their own well-being and safety, we are trying our utmost to do the particular area so that they can continue their business. I can’t give a particular time but we’re working on it. They were given 14 days to move but we still have to construct the stalls, we are working to see how much we can finish by then,” Lewis said.
“We understand their situation, we understand their circumstances, we regret but at this point in time we’re doing the best that we can do to help them. It all depends on resources, we’re looking at income for construction,” she said.