Vendors furious over market fees

Approximately two months after designated vending spaces were clearly outlined along Beckford, Princess, and Heywood streets in downtown Kingston, some vendors are expressing anger at the authorities for demanding they pay the requisite fees.

The aggrieved vendors describe as "brutal" and "unfair" the tactics allegedly employed by municipal authorities to collect fees.

"A badness dem a use," one irate vendor told THE STAR. "You wouldn't even understand wah a gwaan inna Town from December ... a $6,000 every higgler haffi pay," the vendor lamented.

Vendors operating in designated spaces in downtown Kingston are required to pay an annual registration fee of $6,000 and a weekly fee of $1,000. However, the vendors have resisted attempts by the authorities to collect the fees, claiming the methods being used are coercive and unclear.

"This nuh happen nowhere else. A the first inna history dis a gwaan wid brutal force. So wah if people nuh have it? How it really go?" another vendor asked.

Vendors allege that those who fail to pay their fees have had their goods seized by men purportedly working for the Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation (KSAMC).

"Dem tek weh people things if dem nuh pay, but dem a come pon one day when one set a people deh yah. Dem nah come pon Saturday when the rest of the people dem deh yah," said a Beckford Street vendor, on the brink of tears.

"A my youth dem mi hustle fah," she shouted. "We nuh have no babyfather a mind we. A we haffi do it wiself! And when unno a come, a wid brute force!"

Repeated attempts by THE STAR to get a comment from KSAMC CEO Robert Hill were unsuccessful, and calls to Mayor Andrew Swaby went unanswered.

While some vendors are outraged, others have decided to comply.

"Dem keep dem meeting dem, but di vendor dem nuh understand why dem a pay the money. If me think a man just a collect my money fi pocket it, mi nah go want pay. But when dem come, mi just pay them because is dem or somebody else," a male vendor reasoned.

One vendor acknowledged the necessity of the fees, stating, "They make Beckford Street a selling zone. Normally, if it never be a selling zone, we couldn't stay like this. Dem put a yellow line and put everybody behind it, so them never did a collect. This mayor now come up, registration and collect $1,000 every week. Them say [if] them can't find it Friday, they can pay it Saturday. Nothing wrong with that."

She added, "If you don't have it, fine, because them nah go around with no bulldozer and crash yuh things. A years we a sell for the road, free of charge. Nothing wrong if the government take a $1,000, because listen, what I'm trying to tell you is that KSAMC lost millions of dollars under the previous government. He has to come and collect money. See Pearnel Charles Arcade burn down, where them going to get the money from?"

However, another vendor was sceptical, stating, "They can't give us an explanation what that money is for. From the first of December they have been collecting $6,500 to register. And then every week they come and collect $1000. I just pay it because they said I should pay."

Last December, Swaby stated that a major outcome of reorganising the vending streets in downtown Kingston has been a significant improvement in the flow of vehicular traffic.