It appears that the Government is following through on its promise to remove some 200 vendors from the streets of St Vincent and the Grenadines.
While most people were at home or returning from carnival events, the police were actively removing vending stalls outside Massy Supermarket in Arnos Vale on Monday 6 June.
The police had some of the torn-down structures loaded onto several open-backed Jeeps.
A deadline of Thursday, July 16, 2020, was given to vendors who are currently plying their trade outside the Massy Supermarket at Arnos Vale. Physical Planning and Development Board wrote to vendors on July 9, 2020, asking them to remove their structures or face demolition.
However, the vendors were apparently spared after lawyer Kay Bacchus Baptiste intervened and 2020 being an election year.
In July of 2020, Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves said that vendors outside Massy Supermarket at Arnos Vale need to be accommodated.
During WEFM’s Issue at Hand program on Sunday (July 12), Gonsalves said, “It would be good if we could find a place where we could adequately house them, a piece of land”.
He said “But, the thing is this: there have been a lot of complaints by ordinary citizens about the matter,” referring to traffic congestion and health and sanitation issues”.
Kay Bacchus Baptiste, the then Opposition candidate for West St. George in 2020, had stated that the vendors were being asked to leave out of spite.
Bacchus Baptiste claimed they were campaigning for the NDP, which she said was their crime, while their punishment was their removal.
As of press time, it was not known where these vendors would now ply their trade.
