City Council plans crackdown on illegal vending
The Mayor and City Council (M&CC) yesterday warned all vendors that with effect from Monday, November 2nd, 2020, it will not allow unauthorised vending in and around Georgetown.
In a statement, the M&CC said that unauthorised vendors include persons vending along public pathways, walkway, pavements and parapets, also vendors who operate at intersections of streets and obstruct traffic. The M&CC, through multiple administrations, has struggled for years to arrest illegal street vending in the city’s commercial district and it is unclear how it will enforce the new clampdown.
The announcement comes on the heels of recent consultations held by Home Affairs Minister Robeson Benn, who has made known his displeasure with the existing state of affairs whereby vendors are allowed to ply their trade on the roadways
“So that’s a very difficult situation. At the moment, we are requesting that the persons who are selling on the traffic roadway to move off of the roadway,” he said after a recent walkabout at Stabroek Market Square.
Benn had further said that the M&CC would be tasked with repositioning some
of vendors in an effort to facilitate the smooth flow of traffic and movement of people.
Benn met last week with vendors and other stakeholders on plans to address the issues at the Stabroek Market Square. “It is not our fundamental interest in moving people. The fundamental interest is to bring order, optimal efficiency and safety out there,” he said.