According to Minister of Urban Development Julian Francis quite a number of street vendors in Kingstown have stalls in the central market.
In an effort to de-clutter the streets of Kingstown, Minister Francis is calling on these vendors to vend from their market stalls or risk losing the stalls altogether.
“There are 94 persons on the street vending, with 116 stalls in the market and there are 100 inside the market that occupy 222 stalls. So there are a lot of vendors who have stalls in the market, who don’t use them but they are vending on the street and cluttering up the street,” he said.
The Urban Development Minister said that these are particularly dry goods vendors, with a few vegetable vendors included as well, making mention of the vendors from the Jax to Heritage Square areas.
He goes on to speak about the choice that these vendors will be given. Saying that these vendors will have to return to vending in the market stalls or risk losing them, but whether decide to return or not, they will be require to cease vending on the streets of Kingstown.
“Those vendors will get the choice; the choice is: you go back to the market to vend, if you are not going back to the market, you gotta come off the streets still, you have to give up the stall. The stalls in the market are not for storage of goods that we vend on the streets,” Francis stated.
Minister Francis said that he anticipates that there are people that will be upset by this move, but he is confident that his Ministry will ultimately be successful in its attempt to clean up the streets of capital city Kingstown.
