Vendors evicted for rental arrears By Dale McNish, Freelance Writer
WESTERN BUREAU: SIX SHOP owners operating out of the Lucea Market were evicted by their landlord the Hanover Parish Council, through the granting of a court order on Tuesday. The delinquent vendors, who are members of the Sunlight Vendors' Arcade had their shops repossessed for rental arrears amounting to $413,000 between the period February 1999 and March this year. Notices were served on the vendors in November of last year by the local government agency, which had given them until January to vacate the premises. When the six vendors Francine Smith, Eugenie McIntosh, Constance Malcolm, Claudette Dixon, Perlina Patterson and Karen Kelly appeared in the Lucea RM Court on Tuesday they were not prepared to leave the premises just yet and asked for extension until the end of the year. But the Parish Council's attorney, Albert Morgan, told the presiding judge, Judith Pusey, they are prepared to give the vendors until September 30 to vacate the premises. "I think the people at the Parish Council are unfair... what they expect us to do, set up stalls on the street and then they come and remove us, they say they put people first but a money dem put first," Ms. Smith told RM Pusey. According to Ms. Smith, who is the president of the vendors association and who owes arrears amounting to $32,000 over a 16-month period, business in the market is no longer viable. The Council had reported that the default in payments were impacting negatively on its revenue inflow and indicated that shops in excess of three months arrears were targeted for repossession. In December 1998, twenty-one shops were built and handed over to the Sunlight Arcade vendors by the Parish Council at a cost of $1 million. The 10x8 shops are used as variety stores and each vendor is charged a monthly rental fee of $2,000. In the meantime, construction of 23 new shops on lands reclaimed in the vicinity of the market began on Tuesday. According to Mayor Lloyd Hill 23 shops will be constructed within a one-week period at a cost of $50,000 each. The area reclaimed will also be used as a transport and shopping centre.
|
