Zero tolerance for street vendors

Karen Sudu, Gleaner Writer

BOG WALK, St Catherine:

IT WILL not be business as usual for vendors who ply their wares on the streets of some of the major towns in St Catherine this holiday season.

Mayor of Spanish Town, Dr Andrew Wheatley, has warned that the parish council will be taking a zero-tolerance approach to persons who engage in this practice.

"The council will not be entertaining any vending on the streets; persons need to utilise the facilities that have been created to accommodate them. We will not allow the streets to be taken over by illegal vending," the mayor told The Gleaner recently.

Moreover, he asserted that based on the number of registered vendors, there were adequate spaces in the three parish council-operated markets.

"I am assuring that there are adequate spaces for vendors in the Linstead, Spanish Town and Old Harbour markets. There are 300 available spaces in the Old Harbour market, yet everyone wants to bundle up at the front on the roadside," said Wheatley.

Up to Monday, November 15, seven months and two weeks into the 2010-2011 registration period which began on April 1, only 40 vendors had registered to utilise the Old Harbour facility.

For the same period, statistics from the St Catherine Parish Council indicate that 43 persons were registered to sell in the Linstead Market, which can accommodate 600 vendors.

At the same time, 410 persons have been registered to ply their wares in the Spanish Town Market, which can house up to 1,200 vendors.

Anti-vending operations

But the tough-talking mayor noted that discussions regarding enforcement mechanisms have been held with the police.

Consequently, Superintendent Anthony Castle, commander for St Catherine North, told The Gleaner that ongoing anti-vending operations which have started in Linstead and Spanish Town will be increased and expanded to other areas in the parish.

"As we go into the festive season, we will be intensifying what we've been doing through the implementation of other units for places like Linstead and Spanish Town," disclosed the superintendent, who insisted that law and order must be maintained.

But the sellers believe that they should be given a reprieve during the festive season.

"Christmas a de most essential time a de year when we can mek a money fi di January morning, dem should give us a break, mek we mek a money fe we yout dem," uttered a Spanish Town slippers vendor on Cumberland Road.

A female vendor in her 40s, who peddles toiletries on the streets of the Old Capital, argued that business was more lucrative than in the market.

"I get a stall and stay in a de market one whole week and me no sell $500. So me have my bag and my little tings and a sell pon de roadside, and me sell more than when me inna de market. So me willing fe run when the police dem come," she told The Gleaner.

This sentiment is not unique to the Spanish Town vendors.

"If dem tell me fi go in the market I will comply, but as them drive wey, me a go pon the road go sell, dem a work and me a work, me can't sell nutten when mi inna de market," said a clothes vendor who displays her items on a tarpaulin in front of a supermarket on Fletcher's Avenue in Linstead.

"Dis a we living and we a fe mek a living, so if it mean sey wi a fe sell pon de street, a dat we a fe do, we a fe eat a food," a male vendor in the Old Harbour smirked.