High Court-ordered street vendors removal around Yhip’s bakery suspended

Last Updated on Sunday, 28 December 2025, 18:59 by Writer

After turning up with two tractor-trailers and several workers to enforce a High Court order to remove several fruit and vegetable vendors outside Yhip’s Bakery on Robb and Alexander streets, Georgetown, top City Hall officials called off the operation, at least for the time being.

City Engineer Colvern Venture arrived on the scene where he informed a vendor that the High Court order must be enforced regardless of what Mayor Alfred Mentore told them on Saturday.

Mr Venture emphasised that the vendors must comply with the directives of the city administration who are executing the High Court order.

Although the town clerk and himself informed Mr Mentore that they were facing a contempt order, he said the mayor was not before the court. “If the Mayor come and change it, it means he will have to go and face the court,” Mr Venture said.

The vendor thanked the city engineer for the explanation, while stating that “the mayor said we have to get the OK from him”. “We didn’t know now until you come and explain fine,” she told Mr Venture.

After a few minutes on the corner where she was told that the other vendors “tied” up their goods and were not there on Sunday after Saturday night’s meeting with the mayor, Town Clerk Candace Nelson said she would be seeking further legal advice from the municipality’s lawyer. “I can only relay this information to the attorney and we will have to take that to the court and hear what they decide about it. I am not here to break down anybody’s stall or to come and be bully,” she said.

She said earlier this year, a meeting was held with the vendors and they were informed about an area where they would be placed but a number of them were unwilling to move.

She also said an area on Merriman’s Mall was subsequently identified but did not materialise. 

The next court date is January 9, 2026 by which time, according to the town clerk, she hoped to remove the vendors from that area.

However, the mayor, who arrived, clad in short pants and a raincoat, said he would be seeking further legal redress because it was only in the last few weeks that he was informed that the High Court order to remove the vendors from outside Yhip’s was obtained by a woman with a minority share in the Yhip’s property.

“The three or four-fifths of the estate has no problem with these people here. They have also indicated that by letter by one of the attorneys and that is what delayed the process of this whole thing,” he added.

“I’m standing here in between the administration of this council and the vendors to treat with this issue so that we don’t go down the road of doing something unlawful based on a supposedly lawful Court order,” he said.

Mr Mentore said that the city council’s attorney would be submitting its defence by Monday while lawyers from the Yhips side have to deal with their matter.

He later explained to Demerara Waves Online News that the city council did not make representation with an attorney before the court prior to the issuance of the order and would now seek to intervene.

Mr Mentore said he was sympathetic with the vendors’ plight and that they were entitled to a secure livelihood.

The city engineer planned to let his views be known about the apparent “double standards” at the city council’s statutory meeting or at another forum.

For her part, the town clerk said the family property issues did not change the fact that a High Court order has been issued and must be executed.

Ms Nelson advised that the Yhips family would have to seek a separate order against the woman with a one-fifth share who went ahead and obtained an order for the council to remove the vendors which she should not have done. “We still have to abide by the order of the court,” she said.

Almost immediately on arriving at the corner of Robb and Alexander streets, Mayor Mentore vociferously ordered the city council workers, including demolitionists, city police and tractor drivers, to retreat.

“I want these people to go home. You all go home! Go home! What you all doing here? Please go home!” he ordered.

He questioned the “show of force” by the city council workers and whether it was to “mess with poor people.”

He said the mayor and councillors rather than the city administration who pay the workers ordered them to “go home”.

There was open disagreement between the town clerk and the mayor over what was agreed in a meeting that included city councillor Don Singh and local government minister Priya Manickchand.

Mr Mentore claimed that he has a recording of that discussion in which Ms Manickchand informed Ms Nelson to inform the vendors in writing that they would be given until January 4, 2026 and let them sign receiving that correspondence.

The town clerk immediately rejected that account of what transpired. “No Sir! I would suggest you call back minister and get that clear. That’s not what she suggested,” she said. Confident that he was right, the mayor asked the town clerk to verify the decision by calling Councillor Singh.

After Mr Singh told the mayor that the local government minister said the town clerk must write to him (Mr Mentore) and Mr Singh, he said he could not remember before blurting out an expletive. “Listen! I tape the whole fu#&!^* conversation, you know. I recorded the whole conversation so I know what the minister said. Remember, it appeared as if the PPP in this case, you and the minister and in this case maybe the town clerk, appear to be. I am not playing games on this issue,” he said.

When Mr Singh said that might have “slipped him”, Mr Mentore responded “convenient slip, beautiful.”

Even as he said that he has a “great working relationship” with Ms Manickchand, the mayor said he was ready to address any politicisation of the process by the ruling People’s Progressive Party (PPP). “If is it that the minister want to play PPP way and play a different role and let this thing go down a different angle, we ‘gun deal wid duh’,” he said.

When contacted, the local government minister said the only letter she told the town clerk to write the mayor and Councillor Singh was to inform them that the court order must be complied with “so that you can show the court that when you go to court” and make sure they sign as receiving it.

She recalled that Mr Singh had said he would ink the document.