SEVERAL Stabroek Market vendors yesterday protested their imminent relocation to the old Royal Castle location near the Linden bus park in downtown Georgetown.This relocation exercise will commence on Tuesday, and will affect vendors who sell phone cards, bread, DVDs and fruits among other items on the outskirts of the Stabroek Market Bazaar.

Routes 41, 45 and 46 minibuses which operate at the bus park located in the immediate vicinity of the Stabroek Market Bazaar will also be relocated. The move, which is temporary, is part of City Council’s plans to restore and preserve the richness of the iconic Stabroek Market Square.

Deputy Mayor Sherod Duncan engages the peeved Stabroek Market vendors outside City Hall yesterday afternoon

The vendors’ protest comes one day after they met with the Council at City Hall, and both parties are said to have verbally agreed to the relocation. The vendors are contending that the new location, identified at the old Royal Castle site, is unhealthy, insecure, and away from the busy parts of the market area.

Deputy Mayor Sherod Duncan told the vendors that he would report their concerns to the Council. He said the Council agreed that the area would be prepared for the vendors over the weekend.

Duncan is performing the functions of mayor as Mayor Patricia Chase-Green is out of the jurisdiction. He said the Council plans to reorganise the area.

At about 15:00 hrs yesterday, Duncan left City Hall’s chambers to meet with the peeved vendors, who walked from the lawns outside the Ministry of the Presidency to City Hall to vent their concerns.

“We agreed…that we are going to prepare a certain section for you. It will be prepared; we are not going to send you into any unhealthy area,” Duncan told the vendors.

He said that at the meeting on Thursday, both parties agreed that 24-hour security would be in place at the old Royal Castle site.

“You are coming with something else now, and so I want to be able to go back to the Council, the people who were elected by you for your interests, and then we will see what happens,” the Deputy Mayor noted.

He told vendors that the Council makes the decisions for the city’s upkeep and development, and the Town Clerk executes those decisions. However, the vendors maintained that they will not remove from the area.

One vendor told the Deputy Mayor that she has been selling at the market for decades. She said that in the lead-up to the Cricket World Cup in 2007, City Hall had decided that vendors must clean the area on the outskirts of the Stabroek Market Bazaar and maintain it at a standard, and the vendors had complied.

“I cannot afford to move now Mr Deputy,” the woman declared.

Another vendor told Duncan that the area earmarked for relocation is unsightly, since many “junkies” and prostitutes frequent the site.

The vendors noted that several persons were also robbed of their personal belongings there, while another recounted the murder of Linden minibus driver Alvin Lorrimer, who was shot and killed by two men last month at the Linden bus park.

The vendors expressed willingness to remove from the area for several days so that the Council can undertake its works to recap the street outside the market. One vendor suggested that if he were told of relocation plans before last month’s Local Government Elections, his support would have gone elsewhere.

“Mr Deputy, I have five children. I bought a set of Guyana flags along with the 50th stamp on it. I decorated my stand to welcome our anniversary and visitors,” a female vendor told the Deputy Mayor, as she vehemently maintained she would not relocate from the area.

On Thursday, Town Clerk Royston King addressed a well-attended meeting of stakeholders on the lawns of City Hall, and informed them of the relocation plans. King outlined that the meeting was aimed at strengthening the Council’s partnership with the vendors and minibus operators who play their trade on the periphery of the iconic municipal market.

King said the buses plying the Number 41, 45, 46 and 48 routes would revert to parking at their old parking locations, including along Avenue of the Republic and opposite the Victoria Law Courts, known as the Supreme High Court.

“The plan is that we will clean that particular area and reorganize it to allow for the richness of the city to emerge. It is an iconic area and has a lot of history, and we need to reorganize it to allow for a new set of energies to emerge,” King told the gathering, as he pointed to this year’s Golden Jubilee celebrations being themed with the move to improve the environs of the market.

The Town Clerk explained that the shifting of the vendors and minibus operatives to the locations identified will initially be on a temporary basis, until Council is able to work out a permanent arrangement for the vendors.