High Court orders City Council to remove vendors outside GPHC by month-end

Last Updated on Wednesday, 13 May 2026, 18:28 by Denis Chabrol

High Court judge Deborah Kumar-Chetty on Thursday ordered the Town Clerk of the Mayor and City Council to remove all vendors outside the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation by May 31, 2026.

The order was issued after the Town Clerk, Candace Nelson did not file an affidavit in defence to the case brought by the GPHC for the removal of vendors’ stalls and other items that they use from outside the country’s tertiary health facility. Lawyers for the hospital and Ms Nelson made oral arguments.

The GPHC’s application was filed on March 17, 2026, citing a number of reasons requesting the High Court to issue a removal order.

The Town Clerk and her agents or servants now have to comply with the order to remove or cause to be removed the food, beverage and other vendors and hucksters who have set up mobile trucks, carts and other encumbrances including but not limited to vehicles, push-carts, drays, barrels, boxes, dust bins, pallets structures and all things left placed or stored on the street parapet and pavement outside the perimeter
of Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation on Lamaha Street between Thomas Street and East Street; East Street between Lamaha Street and New Market Street; New Market Street between Thomas Street and East Street; and
Middle Street between Thomas Street and East Street

In an affidavit, GPHC’s Chief Executive Officer Robbie Rambarran had told the court that tjhe trucks, carts, stalls and other encumbrances on the pavement have impeded ingress to and egress from the Applicant’s facilities, both by medical and professional staff and most importantly, patients seeking medical services and emergency vehicles. The vendors leave behind their waste and debris strewn across the pavement and at the sides of the aforementioned streets.”

He had also said that several attempts dating back to April 2024 to have the Mayor and City Council remove the vendors and their properties “have proven futile.”