Fresh showdown looms over City vending as landowner insists on no extension

Last Updated on Sunday, 3 July 2016, 13:13 by Denis Chabrol

The man responsible for the plot of land where Stabroek Market vendors were relocated has disputed claims by Town Clerk, Royston King that the municipality was likely to get a three-month extension fpr the vendors to continue selling.

Instead, Mr. Hareshnarine “Chiney” Sugrim said he never had any such discussions with King and that come early August, 2016 the vendors must remove from the land located at the corner of Lombard and Hadfield Streets, Georgetown. “No extension and we are not allowing anybody to go there after three months,” he told Demerara Waves Online News.

Sugrim, who is the Power-of-Attorney for the land owned by Paul  Daby, said he has legal agreement with the Municipality and that come early August, he would be removing everything from the land begin driving piles to build a high-rise parking lot. “We never talk to Royston King about any extension or so forth. We are not giving anymore extension. Let Mr. Royston King find somewhere else to put his vendors,”  Sugrim said.

That is contrary to what the Town Clerk told a Statutory Meeting of the City Council on June 27, 2016 that the councillors would have to find another location for the vendors ahead of a likely three-month extension of occupancy until November, 2016. “The Council will have to find a place to relocate those vendors,” he has said.

King has predicted problems if the sub-committee of the Markets and Public Health Committee does not make arrangements for the vendors.  “If the Council does not come up with a policy and options as to where the vendors will be relocated, then we will have a problem,” he said.

The businessman said King never approached him and never answered his several calls. “He is bigger than Mr. (President David) Granger.”

Sugrim said the vendors must remove before the first week of August because he would be making arrangements for the land to be fenced. He said he did not charge the City Council any money to vend on the land but he had heard that Council has been charging the vendors to sell there.

Demerara Waves Online News was told that vendors are required to pay GYD$1,000 per week as a cleansing fee, but since their relocated municipal cleansing workers have gone their only once.