PoS Mayor to tackle street vending after Carnival

He said the Corporation will clean up the Central Market and once this is done and customers start to patronise the market, then the vendors on Charlotte Street might move to the Central Market.

“You have to offer them the opportunity and you have to encourage them to do it and you have to incentivise it. That, to me, is the approach that I would like to take,” he said “I don’t want to force anybody to do anything.” He said the situation on Charlotte Street now was chaotic and the people who use the street complain about it although the vendors themselves might not agree.

“But if you have a city and it’s not clean or there is no regulation taking place and something is in chaos, then the leaders of the city must deal with it.” He said they will consult with the stakeholders in an orderly, humane and professional manner.

The Mayor said some Charlotte Street vendors are conducting their sales in an orderly manner but there were others who are causing chaos. He said when the programme was established several years ago there were not many complaints but the problems developed after the authorities stopped regulating it. He said that meant that it was a management problem or it may also be that the original vendors are no longer there and the current ones are not sticking to the rules.

He said the City Corporation will first try to bring Charlotte Street back to what it was, enforcing the hours during which vending was originally allowed, insisting on registration of the vendors and that they maintain the stands at the agreed sizes and locations.

He said he wanted to see if better management was viable but if it was not or if people did not want to stick to the rules and regulations, “then we will have to make some alternative decisions on it.” He said the Central Market had been in existence for a number of years and there are vendors selling there who pay their dues and people visit the market.

“If the market wasn’t viable, they wouldn’t be there,” he said, adding that it was not reasonable for the vendors currently selling on Charlotte Street to say that they will lose business by going into the Central Market.

“If the market is a place where vegetables are at a reasonable price and they are nice and fresh, I would end up in the market.” He acknowledged that there were problems at the Central Market, admitting that because of its location over the years people do not feel safe about going there and there was the additional concern about increased crime.

However, he said he had not heard of any crime taking place in the market for months so it could not be said that the market was dangerous.

He said the complaints at the Central Market were about the conditions.

“When I look I see garbage strewn all over the market which means that it’s not properly cleaned - you don’t have enough garbage bins. The toilets need to be repaired and there are people vending outside the market who need to go inside the market.

“You can’t put fruit and vegetables for people to eat on the floor - we have to stop that. We have to regulate it. Now once we start regulating things and people start to attend the market, the vending on Charlotte Street will maybe move to the market.”