BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - VENDORS plying their trade on Delise Street in Central Basseterre are voicing their displeasure at a proposed move by Government and other agencies to have them removed from the streets without consultation.
On Thursday and Friday last, several vendors who sell along the controversial Delise Street met police cones blocking the area in which they would normally carry out their daily operations.
When the media visited the site yesterday (Apr. 9), vendors were heard venting their frustration. One of them, Fayola Browne, who explained that when she went to ply her trade on Thursday (Apr.7), she had seen a number of police cones placed adjacent to Courts Furniture and Appliances Store; the area where she normally sells her produce.
She noted that it drew her attention to a number of reports that were circulating in the media over the past two weeks about roadside vending.
“I figured out that they don’t want us to be selling there on the opposite side. I have been hearing a lot of news that they have been trying to get the vendors off the road and put them back in the market.”
The longstanding vendor does not support the authorities view but instead wants them to have consultations with the vendors.
“The problem is that they have blocked off the side of the road that I am selling and they did not notify us or try to give us a space where we can put our stuff to sell,” she said.
For many years persons have been complaining about the level of vending on Delise Street between Liverpool Row and the Bay Road, as it is difficult for traffic and persons to traverse that street when a number of vendors use open-back vehicles to sell along that particular thoroughfare.
Head of the Traffic Department Inspector Carl Caines had recently informed that if people want to do business it has to be done in an organized manner. He recently made that comment while a guest on Winn FM’s Traffic Talk programme.
Caines claimed that a day would come when individuals would go and vend in front of the Parliament building.
“It will happen,” he noted.
The Traffic Chief also said: “People will go in front of the Judicial Complex. Somebody is going to sell in the Square, in front of the courthouse. Unless we put checks and balances and put a proper system in place, we will look like a ghetto in Basseterre”
To this end, Caines said that the vending is out of control and is calling on the relevant authority to take note.
Browne and another displaced vendor explained that there are calls for them to return to the market, but they stated that if they were to return to that location their volume of sales would decrease and many of their perishable products would spoil.
Against that backdrop, the vendors are calling for the authorities to have that particular location blocked between certain 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. so that they could carry out their daily operations.
“All they have to do is block off the street so that they can have vendors here...that is all.”
Additionally, SKNVibes understands that the vendors selling in front of RAM’s and Courts on the Bay Road will also have to be relocated.
When this publication visited the market on Friday, only a small amount of persons were seen at that facility, none of whom were vendors.
