Camille Clarke

Spokesman for the Co­conut Ven­dors As­so­ci­a­tion Jes­si­ca Bab­wah says co­conut ven­dors are will­ing to pay the $700 a month fee im­posed by Port-of-Spain may­or Louis Lee Sing. Lee Sing im­posed the charge for the ven­dors to ply their trade around the Queen's Park Sa­van­nah last June.

The as­so­ci­a­tion met last Wednes­day with the health in­spec­tor and CEO of the city cor­po­ra­tion Winifred David. Lee Sing was un­able to at­tend be­cause of oth­er com­mit­ments. In a tele­phone in­ter­view yes­ter­day, Bab­wah said from Jan­u­ary 1, 2013, every ven­dor would pay $700 to sell around the sa­van­nah.

She said the as­so­ci­a­tion was told dur­ing the meet­ing that ven­dors would al­so have to op­er­ate their busi­ness out of a cart in­stead of a truck. Bab­wah said 45 years ago, her grand­fa­ther start­ed the busi­ness out of a don­key cart, which was even­tu­al­ly up­grad­ed to a van. "We are go­ing to pay the fee. It is not that we are not will­ing. The sa­van­nah has to be main­tained and cleaned. We are more than will­ing. "It is not a mul­ti-mil­lion-dol­lar busi­ness. We are hum­ble and hard-work­ing ven­dors. It (the price) is kind of steep," she said.

She said the co­conuts were sold at $6 for one, but oth­er ven­dors had high­er prices. "It don't have bath­room or wa­ter or fa­cil­i­ties around the sa­van­nah. We re­main friends with busi­ness own­ers and pay a fee to use their fa­cil­i­ties," she ex­plained.

Bab­wah said at a pre­vi­ous meet­ing in June, Lee Sing "ran­dom­ly" called rates for the ven­dors to pay to the cor­po­ra­tion. "He start­ed at $1,000 and was not tak­ing it se­ri­ous­ly. On Wednes­day, they gave us an ul­ti­ma­tum, that if we don't meet the fees or a cart, we can­not sell any longer," she said.

Bab­wah al­so de­nied Lee Sing's com­ment that there was no co­conut ven­dors' as­so­ci­a­tion. "The as­so­ci­a­tion has been in ex­is­tence ap­prox­i­mate­ly 30 years. He is a new­com­er and he ap­proached my fa­ther as pres­i­dent of the as­so­ci­a­tion when he could have giv­en the news to the ven­dors," she said.

Bab­wah al­so de­nied Lee Sing's charge that there was a "co­conut mafia" op­er­at­ing around the sa­van­nah. "We have been vend­ing for years and they were very dis­crim­i­na­to­ry (at the meet­ing). We had an agree­ment with a cart ven­dor which changed. We were told that we must op­er­ate our busi­ness out of a cart. Why is the may­or in favour of a cart? We don't have mon­ey to pay for a cart," she said.

She said they made arrange­ments with a cart own­er years ago who brought in mem­bers of his fam­i­ly and friends. "We made arrange­ment to put our co­conuts in his cart and that was the agree­ment be­cause it was a prime area. He had ad­ver­tise­ments on the carts," she said. "Then he start­ed to bring dif­fer­ent peo­ple and fam­i­ly and gave us thun­der. That is killing our busi­ness and is not in our con­trol."