WESTERN BUREAU — The presence of vendors atop the South Gully Drainage Improvement Project is hampering efforts to have the gully cleaned, according to the National Works Agency.

“From day one we, at the NWA, were adamant that it was a bad idea to put the vendors on top of the gully,” Stephen Shaw, the Agency’s community relations officer for the western region, told a meeting in Montego Bay recently.

He argued that the gully was now heavily silted and it would take them at least two weeks to clean it.

“We are ready to go in and clean, but we cannot do it with all those vendors there,” Shaw said.

Two years ago, government spent $14 million to complete the South Gully project in a bid to alleviate the long-standing problem of flooding in the area. But within a few months of completion, the gully overflowed, sparking harsh criticism that the drainage project was inadequate.

At the time, the NWA argued that the flooding was due to a pile-up of debris inside the gully. And in a move to prevent future flooding, the agency acquired cleaning equipment valued at over US$200,000.

But Shaw said, this week, that they would not be able to use the equipment — which includes a truck loader, bucket machine, backhoe and pulling machine — while the vendors remained at the site.

If the 2,000-foot gully is not cleaned, he said, it could prove hazardous to legitimate businesses in the area.

The NWA’s position has added to the brewing controversy surrounding the St James parish council’s decision to have vendors remain at the Old Shoe Market site indefinitely.

Two weeks ago, the Jamaica Labour Party-controlled council voted to have the vendors remain atop the gully, sparking an intense debate with People’s National Party (PNP) councillors. The vigorous debate almost plunged the meeting into chaos.

The decision to have the vendors remain was counter to that taken during the council’s last administration. The city council, a subcommittee of the then PNP-controlled parish council had, in fact, served removal notices on the vendors earlier this year.

This week, Dave Allen, a PNP activist who acts as a consultant to vendors in the People’s Arcade, voiced his opposition to the council’s decision, saying it was unfair to the over 150 shop owners he represents. The arcade vendors, he said, had spent thousands of dollars to build the shops and deserved to be treated better.

“The action of the council rewards those who are prepared to break the law (by vending on the streets),… forfeits a solemn agreement made (by vendors) to return to the Arcade on the 31st day of January (2003) and punishes law-abiding, tax-paying business people,” Allen said in a release.

“These operators have been betrayed and feel a sense of abandonment by their elected officials. The St James Parish Council, through its action, has undermined the ability of the People’s Arcade to return to its position of viability; they have abandoned a facility that… offers street vendors the possibility of ownership. Vendors are now the victims of a nasty political game,” he added.

However the JLP’s Horace Chang, member of parliament for North West St James, said the 80 vendors atop the South Gully would vacate to facilitate the cleaning as soon as the NWA sets a date for the process to take place.

“The vendors have agreed to move to allow the National Works Agency to clean the gully,” the Member of Parliament told the Observer this week.

“All they (the NWA) need to do is to give us a date and they will move,” he added.