McKenzie
KINGSTON'S MAYOR, Councillor Desmond McKenzie, has warned that the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation (KSAC) will not tolerate any street vending in non-prescribed areas, after the registration deadline of December 6.
"This KSAC administration will not give up one more inch of the streets of the Corporate Area to vendors. We will not bow to any pressure, whatsoever. When the deadline for registration of vendors pass, which is the sixth of December, zero tolerance will be the order of the day," he said.
Speaking last night at a function at the Hilton Hotel in New Kingston, to pay tribute to those who have contributed to Local Government, Mayor McKenzie said that the KSAC had been working with certain persons in the vending community for several years, to bring a level of discipline and order to vending in downtown Kingston. He said he was disturbed by their behaviour, as he was not getting the level of co-operation he expected.
"These people say one thing in the meetings and another thing when they go outside," he said.
The resolution to assign some areas of downtown to vendors was brought to the Council, and was passed unanimously. He said that there was a different situation outside of the Council.
But, Mayor McKenzie said, despite the lack of co-operation, the Council would not bow to any sort of pressure.
He said that the KSAC was putting in place certain infrastructual work to deal with problems that had been identified. For example, he said, some work will be done to the Jubilee Market, which was burnt down by fire earlier this year, and the area will be made available to vendors for a short period of time. However, he said that the vendors would not be allowed to use the market area beyond the middle of January.
He commended the committee overseeing the registration of the vendors, the police and the downtown business district, for their co-operation.
"If Local Government is to have any meaning in this country, then the law will have to take its course, not indiscipline, and this administration will not bow to that sort of pressure," the Mayor said.
