By Keril Wright, Staff ReporterWESTERN BUREAU:
FRUSTRATED WITH efforts to regulate the popular 'bend down' market, the municipal authority in Trelawny has laid blame at the feet of the police, for what it says is their failure to enforce the law and assist the Council in getting the vendors off the street.
A source at the Parish Council said efforts to get vendors to use the Falmouth market on Wednesdays have come to naught as the police refuse to enforce the law by assisting with the removal of the vendors.
The police are accused of exhibiting a nonchalant attitude when it comes to enforcing the law, which is contributing to vendors skirting the regulations.
However, Superintendent in charge of the parish, Jasmine Tomlinson-Brown, has blamed the Council. "We are willing to assist," she said." We have informed the Council that we need a truck to help in this regard, and to date, we have heard nothing."
The superintendent said she spoke to Mayor Joseph Wright a week ago and she has not heard from him since. Efforts by The Gleaner to contact the mayor on two occasions were unsuccessful, as he was said to be out of office.
Supt. Tomlinson-Brown told The Gleaner that the police in the parish have led several operations and served summonses on the vendors. She said they had asked for a truck so that the stalls along Tharpe Street could be dismantled and removed on Tuesday.
She said that due to the unavailability of the truck, the police had turned their attention to vendors occupying other areas of the town. "We will be leading an operation this afternoon," she told The Gleaner on Tuesday. Meanwhile, commercial services manager, Hugh Porter, said the failure of the vendors to use the market was causing the Council to lose revenue. The Wednesday or 'bend down' market is a major source of revenue for the town's people. On Wednesdays, vendors from Kingston sell their wares in Falmouth to people from surrounding parishes.
"We are losing revenue because the vendors on the street will not pay the municipal fee, and those in the market are refusing to pay because they say those on the road are not paying," Mr. Porter said. He said vendors who sell within a certain radius of the market are still required to pay a fee.
He added that the problems with the vendors go beyond a loss of revenue for the Council, as in recent times their staff has been attacked and residents living on Tharpe Street have complained of harassment. Richard Sterling, a returnee from England who resides and operates a business on Tharpe Street, said it has reached a point where he has been attacked and injured at his gate in front of police personnel.
"I was attacked and injured by a vendor last year and this occurred in the presence of a police personnel and nothing came of it," he said. "It's a joke!" he charged. Mr. Sterling said that since January 30 this year he has been forced to close his wholesale establishment on Wednesdays, as the vendors spread their wares in front of his business cutting off access to his place.
On several occasions, he said, he has had physical confrontations with them, and they in turn have vandalised his property.
Cops, Trelawny PC play the blame game
