SPALDINGS:
STREET VENDORS in Christiana, Manchester, continue to play cat-and-mouse with the police who are engaged in a drive to stop the display and peddling of goods on public thoroughfares.
On Saturday, the Christiana police swooped down on vendors, many of them peddling back-to-school items, sending scores scurrying to find space in the nearby market. The police seized goods valued at tens of thousands of dollars from several vendors.
Members of the Island Special Constabulary Force have been making surprise visits to Christiana, as well as to Spaldings, over the last four to five months in an effort to remove illegal vendors from the streets. They have had some success.
They have destroyed several vending stalls and seized thousands of dollars worth of goods which were being peddled outside the town in Christiana.
However, despite the police action, vendors continue to sell on the oftentimes busy streets.
Unlike Christiana, vendors in Spaldings have been complying with the police orders and have settled in the municipal market in that town, despite the unfavourable conditions there.
The Island Special Constabulary Force team on its last visit to Spaldings expressed pleasure at the way the vendors there had complied, but said they would return from time to time to ensure that things remained orderly.
They said they had no intention of allowing vendors in Christiana to continue to "have their own way".
