JRC says vendors at People’s Arcade are not their tenants
Published:Wednesday | March 23, 2022 | 12:06 AMAlbert Ferguson/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
Social activist O. Dave Allen is appealing for occupants of the People’s Arcade, located in Montego Bay, St James, to be given security of tenancy for the property they have occupied for the last 24 years. However, Donald Hanson, general manager of the Jamaica Railway Corporation (JRC), says no action will be taken without his board’s approval.
In a letter addressed to Montego Bay Mayor Leeroy Williams and Heroy Clarke, the member of parliament for St James Central, where the property is located, Allen charged that the facility was designated for use by players in the micro sector as a retail space, but blames the landowners, Jamaica Railway Corporation, for allowing the property to become a shanty town.
However, on Monday Hanson said, “None of them are our tenants. We have tried in the past to formalise them, but while some are willing to enter into a contract with us, we haven’t gotten anywhere.”
Hanson, who was responding to questions from The Gleaner in relation to the issues, also claimed that the occupants were placed on the property without the permission of the JRC.
Street vendors who occupied sections of the South Gully were relocated to the People’s Arcade to facilitate improvement work in 1996.
But Allen said, “The Jamaica Railway Corporation over these many years have converted sections of the market district into a shanty town, while they suffocate Montego Bay’s main economic engine of growth which happens to be small business enterprises.”
He argued that successive governments have disregarded the pleas of the small business operators over the years. Allen also pointed to issues with the occupants and the National Water Commission (NWC), and veiled attempts by the St James Municipal Corporation to frustrate the operators.
“These acts of sabotage were designed to force the vendors to abandon their shops so that the JRC can sell the property without compensation to the shop owners,” Allen charged.
Hanson countered tersely by saying, “They are not tenants so we can give them any letters to go to the National Water Commission or JPS (Jamaica Public Service)”.
He said the board will be meeting within the next two weeks where he expects to be instructed on the long-standing issue. He also rejected claims by the shop owners that the JRC is seeking to sell the property to Chinese business interests.
Fire on Saturday left several of the business operators counting their losses. It is reported that some time between 2 and 3 a.m. fire was seen coming from a building on River Bay Road. The blaze reportedly spread to shops at the People’s Arcade.