By Trudy Simpson, Staff Reporter
Police and soldiers stand guard as workers employed by the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation remove wooden stalls yesterday morning in the effort to restrict vending in downtown Kingston. They removed stalls from several areas including South Parade and Beckford and Princess streets during the operation. - Winston Sill/Freelance Photographer
OFFICIALS OF the Kingston & St. Andrew Corporation on the weekend organised the destruction of scores of wooden stalls, other vending contraptions and the removal of debris from the streets of downtown Kingston as they resumed the effort to rid the streets of vendors.
More than 30 truckloads of debris were removed in the operation, which began late Saturday night and continued until 2 a.m. yesterday, according to Errol Greene, the Town Clerk. The operation was carried out along the usually congested Princess and Beckford streets, as well as at South Parade.
"Our plan is to go every weekend until normalcy is restored," said Mr. Greene, who maintained that the vending regulations would be enforced.
During the crackdown the KSAC found some hideouts to which vendors took their stalls and goods, rather than obey the orders to move, after the KSAC advised them of its impending action. A major hideout was found on Luke Lane, from which about 90 per cent of the debris was removed, he said.
Yesterday, the KSAC continued its operation, seeking to beautify some sections of the city, including areas around the Kingston Parish Church.
Mr. Greene said they would be pruning the "big tree" at South Parade, a tree at the Parish Church, "and try to do a little bit of curb wall stuff those are some of the things."
The latest removal operation was part of a vendor removal plan developed by the KSAC earlier this year, Mr. Greene said.
The plan had called for the removal of vendors, from Church and King streets as well as South Parade before moving to phase two. During phase two, illegal vendors were expected to be moved from Orange, Princess and Beckford streets. Phase three was to take in West Queen Street and North Parade.
The plan also called for the Ministry of Local Government to acquire a truck to transport seized goods and security personnel to designated locations. There were also plans for the KSAC and the Ministry of National Security to recruit security personnel to help in enforcement, as well as the recruitment of 10 supervisors to be trained and sworn in as special district constables.
It would also see the KSAC hiring a truck to routinely inspect the area and remove any goods, stalls and paraphernalia found in "no vending" areas. The KSAC and the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce were also to appoint wardens to enforce the Litter Act in the market district.
