… to now pay vending registration fee

In light of the notice that the Mayor and City Council (M&CC) will now be charging street vendors a registration fee of $3000 to ply their trade in the city, many

The broken stalls at Merriman Mall

vendors on Friday have denounced this move.

Speaking with Guyana Times on this new fee, one vendor, who identified herself as “Carol”, said while this is not the first time vendors have had to register; this is the first occurrence of vendors being obligated to pay a fee.

“I have been a vendor for a long, long time on these streets, and a long time back we had to register to ply our trade, and we got a lil ID card. But never have we had to pay anything! Not a dime!” she said.

Another vendor along Water Street, Georgetown, said that this is now an additional burden for her since she has a family to maintain and she is the sole breadwinner. According to the mother of five, as a street vendor, she is required to provide a weekly fee of $1500 to City Constabulary workers already.

“I done gotta pay $1500 a week to the M&CC and now they want $3000 more! That’s two weeks’ pay from me and my children mouth!”

Other vendors voiced that they are being bullied by the Town Clerk Royston King into complying with his “ridiculous commands” and they are prepared to fight it. However, they did not elaborate as to how they plan to take action.

Efforts to make contact with Mayor Patricia Chase-Green and Town Clerk Royston King on this new fee proved futile.

Meanwhile, last year, Mayor Chase-Green and Town Clerk Royston King had announced that vendors will not be allowed to ply their trade on the corners of the road, and many persons had been fined for this offence.

Now, the M&CC has indicated the vendors need to register in order to be able to sell on the road.

Moreover, the M&CC has implemented many measures which have had devastating impacts on persons vending in Georgetown.

Additionally, space in the capital city is limited to relocate vendors, as was indicated when the merchants who were moved from the Stabroek Market Square to a temporary location South of Parliament Building, and more recently were relocated back to market area.

At the time of moving the vendors, Mayor Chase-Green had stated that “no one will be allowed to ply their trade on the Stabroek Market Square,” as they [M&CC] sought to execute their clean-up campaign.

Only two days ago, the M&CC sought to demolish many stalls in the Merriman Mall, claiming that they were in deplorable conditions.