Coming out of a meeting on Thursday, Bourda Market stallholders who protested City Hall on Wednesday calling for wholesaling vendors plying outside of the market to be removed are now voicing their dissatisfaction with the proposal put forward to them by Town Clerk.
According to the vendors, following their protest action, a meeting was held with the Town Clerk, Royston King and Market Clerk who proposed that the vendors outside of the market be given three hours each daily to ply.
The proposal by the vendor, that is-for those vendors to be able to ply from 17:00hrs- 07:00hrs each day- was shut down.
Vendor, Omawattie Ramsawack revealed to Inews that after the meeting was called, the vendors who attended explained the situation before them and made their proposal.
However after listening to their suggestions, King reportedly announced his decision and the meeting was adjourned.
“He only listen to we and then he tell we what he decided to do and then he end the meeting. But nothing aint change, is same struggle because since then is the same thing happening, we aint getting any sales” Ramsawack explained.
As such, the wholesaling vendors continued to ply their trade as per normal and the stallholders inside of the market are still complaining of their livelihoods being taken from them.
This publication reported on Thursday that the stallholder marched, protesting City Hall calling for an intervention by the Town Clerk and Mayor.
According to them, some are forced to throw away their goods on a daily basis as a result of the lack of sales.
This, the stallholders blame, on the vendors who ply their trade outside of the market, offering their goods at a cheaper cost. As such, the vendors who occupy stalls within Bourda Market are not getting many sales.
The street vendors are reportedly only allowed to ply their trade within a fixed period, which stallholders contend they are not adhering to.
As a result, the vendors are complaining of paying for stalls inside which are not benefiting them.
One vendor, Rampaul Singh revealed that he has been paying the Council of City Hall a large sum of money each month, alleging that stallholders are threatened if they fail to pay.
“I have been paying the Council x amount of money per month. If you do not pay within a certain time, they are threatening you to close you down. How can you make money when they have that large amount of people selling all day on Robb Street. People cannot even traverse that road with their cars to come and buy from us because they can’t reach. I have a truck that I have to use to bring goods to my stall and I cannot even pass in. Why are they having all these people here and even before the time that they should be here,” Singh decried.
