Portland market relocation aborted

The Portland Parish Council has abandoned plans to relocate more than 350 vendors from the Musgrave market to the old Craft Village site, just days ahead of the scheduled start of major repairs.



Mayor of Port Antonio, Floyd Patterson, says the council will instead implement measures, which will allow vendors to continue using the market, while repairs are being carried out.



He says repairs to the market are to begin later this week, with work being done from Sunday to Wednesday of each week.



He says vendors will be allowed to ply their trade at the facility on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.



Mayor Patterson is also warning vendors with outstanding vending fees to settle their accounts, or face the likelihood of being evicted from the facility upon the completion of repairs.



He says approximately $45 million is to be spent to complete repairs on the market, and so far the Tourism Product Development Company has donated $23 million to assist with the repairs.



The Parish Council, which declared earlier that it had only managed to raise $1 million, is expected to foot the rest of the bill.



The planned work will include the upgrade of sanitary conveniences, repairs to the facility’s roof, doors, windows, and managers’ quarters, re-wiring of the entire facility and the building of new stalls, and a ticket office.



The work is expected to be complete within three months.