– after testifying at CoI

BOURDA Market vendor Melissa Roberts last Tuesday evening had her fruit stand unceremoniously removed from her vending spot, allegedly on the instruction of City Mayor,Patricia Chase-Green.

Roberts believes her forcible removal is payback for testifying at the City Hall Commission of Inquiry (CoI) on Monday.

Roberts was allowed to reappear before the CoI on Friday to tell her side of what she deems to be blatant victimisation against her.

The CoI, which is being held at the Critchlow Labour College on Woolford Avenue and is being presided over by Retired Justice Cecil Kennard, heard that at approximately 18:30hrs on Tuesday, Roberts was approached by the mayor and the clerk of markets and told she had to move from the spot where she has been vending for over two-and-a-half years.
Roberts said that she was told that she was being removed because she was blocking the entrance to a supermarket.

However, pictorial evidence shows that Roberts was not vending in front of the supermarket as claimed; that rather, her stall was located next door to the supermarket,in front of an alleyway between the supermarket and another building;and
while there were indeed other collapsible stands in front of the supermarket’s entrance, according to Roberts, those stands actually belong to the supermarket.
Roberts said that after she was moved, the supermarket put out more tables and took over the spot that she had vacated.

“I am selling at that spot, Numbers 46 and 47, for two years and eight months,” she said.
“They said I block the entrance of the supermarket, but I am not in front of the supermarket; I am at the side, between two buildings. It’s the supermarket that is operating all day, and coming out in the afternoon with collapsible tables and produce outside.

“They put out an even larger stand right where I was selling.”
According to the woman, she was given no prior notice to move, despite the fact that she was up to date on the payment of all her fees.

VERY UNPROFESSIONAL
She also claims that the manner in which she was treated by the mayor was very unprofessional. “I ask them to please give me somewhere to vend because I am selling perishables. Ms. Green said to me the market clerk will deal with that,” Roberts said, adding:
“She was very rude to me. When I ask her to relocate me to another spot, she talk to me like if is an animal she speaking to.”

Roberts said that though she has been relocated, the area to which she has been assigned is woefully inadequate.

“Where they locating me, between the cheese man and the watermelon man, is a three-foot space; it cannot fit my perishables, because is 21 different fruits I sell,” she said.
“So I decided to go in the middle of the road and sell Tuesday night, because I could not accommodate there.”

After being unable to vend for all of Wednesday, she ventured to City Hall on Thursday.
“I went back to the market clerk and the acting town clerk and ask them to please relocate me to a proper spot that I could get to carry on my trade,” she said, adding:
“Both of them told me that I have to wait until next week Tuesday for them to give me a space to sell.

“I cannot vend; I need to vend. I don’t have nowhere to sell; my perishables is there perishing.”

When contacted Friday for a comment, the mayor said she had nothing to say.
“I have no comment on any issue with regards to the CoI,” she said.
It was last Monday that Roberts first appeared before the CoI to testify about another incident that had occurred in July, when she was confronted by Town Clerk Royston King and told to remove her stand.

“Mr. Royston King seized all of my produce on the 21st of July when I came out to sell, saying he don’t want me to sell there anymore,” Roberts testified. “He didn’t say why; he didn’t comment.”

At the time, Roberts said, she had been locked up at the City Constabulary from 11:00hrs to 14:00hrs for refusing to remove her fruit stand from Robb Street, in the vicinity of the Bourda Market.

After she was released, Roberts said, she still didn’t dismantle her stands, which resulted in some $250,000 worth of fruits of hers being seized by members of the constabulary.

The vendor has since sought legal advice and was given a letter by her lawyer to deliver to King, who, on realising what she’d done, subsequently gave her back her spot.
The woman said that although she was given the go-ahead to resume vending in the location, her fruits eventually perished with no apology or compensation from King.