Vendors protest deplorable condition of Market administered by Hamilton Green's City Council

Vendors of the East Ruimveldt Market are calling on the Georgetown Mayor and City Council to address the poor conditions they have had to endure for a number of years despite paying significant sums of stall fees to the council's coffers.

The washroom in the East Ruimveldt Market

Vendors say they are fed up with the poor roads and shoddy stalls, and now with garbage piling up in the entrance way of the market, many fear that business will be affected. “We need road, we need lights and we need some upgrade in the whole atmosphere around; we need to be upgraded so our businesses could be effective for the New Year,” Beryl Austin, a longtime vendor of the market said.
The roads in the market are dotes with puddles of varying sizes while, the main entrance to the market is a quagmire of filth and rubbish.
“We don’t have a garbage bin in this market and we really need to have a garbage bin and let they look after that road,” one vendor lamented.
Marcel Tucker, who has been working in the market for over eight years, believes the garbage at the entrance of the market is hindering business.
“It is going to hinder our business and business to me; it [business] drop because nobody ain’t coming through that slash to be purchase anything,” she said.
Tucker also lamented the poor state of the roads in the market. She said for all the years she has been working at her grocery stall, she has never seen any repairs being done to the market.

A section of the road of the market

“I would like to see this market repair and see it come up to the level it ought to be. We pay our dues that have to pay and I think that because of what we are paying, we have to work in a better environment,” she added.
Another bone of contention for vendors is the poor state of the toilet facilities in the market.
“We like to have a walkway to when we have to go to the toilet, where we have to walk it very muddy right now,” Daphne Henry told media operatives.
While admitting that the clerk of market does visit regularly, Henry said she cannot remember the last time repairs were carried out. Many of the stalls in the market were closed. For those that were open, business was slow.
The stalls were missing guttering work and for some zinc sheets. Others showed clear signs of rot, and one vendor explained that he had to take the initiative and carry out repairs on his and nearby stalls before it collapsed. Vendors are calling on City Council to address their concerns since they cannot continue to work in such poor conditions.

This comes even as the cash strapped city council, led by the APNU's Hamilton Green voted a 33% increase for councilors while its ordinary employees remain uncertain on whether or not they will be paid their January salary.