KSAC to step up registration of vendors
THE Kingston and St Andrew Corporation (KSAC), which has registered almost 2,000 vendors in the Pearnel Charles, Constant Spring and Redemption Arcades, will be stepping up its campaign over the next two weeks to have vendors at Oxford Mall, Coronation, Pechon Street and Coal markets register as well.
Chairman of the KSAC and Mayor of Kingston, Councillor Angela Brown Burke, told Tuesday’s council meeting that with “arm twisting” and the threat of locking out vendors at the Pearnel Charles, Constant Spring and Redemption arcades, the KSAC was able to register more than 98 per cent of vendors in those arcades.
She admitted, however, that getting ground provision vendors in open markets such as the Coronation, Pechon Street and Coal markets would be more challenging.
According to the mayor, so far the compliance rate in Oxford Mall is 44 per cent, while in the Coronation Market where more than 1,500 vendors operate, only 443 or 29 per cent had registered, she said. Only 25 per cent of the 78 vendors at the Pechon Street market have been registered, while none of the 22 vendors at the Coal market had registered, she said.
“We can’t allow this to continue. The officers have been instructed to step up enforcement in these areas,” Brown Burke said.
She said that the vendors needed to have a TRN number to register but some of them did not have birth certificates. In such cases “we are thinking of giving them a temporary ID”, she said.
On paying the $3,000 fee vendors are issued with photo identification. The vendor registration programme is part of the KSAC’s plan to ensure that all vendors are operating legally.
Meanwhile, Brown Burke told the council that more attention would have to be given to the concerns of vendors in the arcades with high registration.
“We want to engage the market committees to give attention to their condition and areas of concern. We have to raise the bar,” she said.
— Claudienne Edwards