Spaldings vendors bemoan market blues

George Henry, Gleaner Writer

SPALDINGS, Clarendon:

Vendors who traditionally sell in the Spaldings Municipal Market in Clarendon, which was demolished more than five years ago to make way for the construction of a new facility, are calling for immediate action so they can stop hawking on the streets.

According to the vendors, conditions in the northwestern Clarendon town are deplorable. There is no shelter to protect them from scorching sunshine or torrential rainfall, they told The Gleaner.

The sellers of ground provisions and other goods said some of them have been forced to set up shop in a makeshift market in the Minnie Clarke Bus Park. But this has not gone down well with transport operators who contend that they are a traffic hazard.

No market, space problems

"We do not have a market. We do not have a shed when we go into the bus park, because the taxi operators say they and us, as vendors, cannot continue to operate from the same facility, because if vendors or their customers are run over by their vehicles and they are injured, they will not be responsible," said Merine Baker, who has been vending in Spaldings for several years.

Baker claimed that she and other vendors were paying fees to ply their trade from the bus park but others have been forced to tough it out on the streets of the busy town. She stressed that higglers were being chased off the streets by cops who direct them to the transport hub.

"The bus park is inconvenient because there is no bathroom there. There is no shed there, because they say the shed is for the persons who are awaiting transportation.

"So we want to know the reason why they have not finished the market so that we can get out of the bus park and off the street to sell our goods," questioned Baker.

She, like other hawkers, is demanding answers from the Clarendon Parish Council about fees being collected for vending space in the bus park.

Baker has also called for the Clarendon Parish Council to send representatives to Spaldings to update them on the construction of the market building.

Temporary opening

The new facility was temporarily opened to vendors last Christmas to ease congestion in the rural township. However, it was closed shortly after, and no work has taken place on the building since.

Efforts to get word from May Pen Mayor Milton Brown proved futile, as his cellular phone went to voicemail. Attempts to contact Member of Parliament Michael Stern met a similar fate.