SASCHA WIL­SON

San Fer­nan­do May­or Ju­nia Re­grel­lo is con­sid­er­ing block­ing off High Street for three days dur­ing the 2019 Christ­mas sea­son. Al­though there were ob­jec­tions from some busi­ness peo­ple, a sec­tion the street was blocked off on Sun­day and yes­ter­day to al­low ven­dors to sell and pedes­tri­ans to shop freely. Tents were erect­ed on one side of the road for the ven­dors.

Un­like Sun­day when there were very few shop­pers and lit­tle traf­fic, High Street was abuzz with ac­tiv­i­ty yes­ter­day as last-minute shop­pers crowd­ed the stores and street search­ing for Christ­mas Eve bar­gains. There was a heavy po­lice pres­ence to en­sure law and or­der and live en­ter­tain­ment was pro­vid­ed by the La Pas­to­ra Parang Group. May­or Re­grel­lo was seen danc­ing as the band played on a stage in the mid­dle of the street.

Street ven­dor Trevor Dou­glas, who was sell­ing or­chids, said” “I went in the forests in To­co and got these love­ly or­chids. I’m sell­ing them for $20 and the ones with flow­ers are go­ing for $100. I am hap­py I got a chance to sell on the streets to make a lit­tle ex­tra dol­lar.”

How­ev­er, Ronald Sukhbir, own­er of Foot­loose Store, was not hap­py about High Street be­ing blocked off.

“It is un­fair for us as busi­ness­peo­ple to be pay­ing tax­es yet we can­not sell in our own stores, while the ven­dors get free rein on the streets,” he said.

“Some busi­ness peo­ple pay $50,000 and $60,000 in tax­es, so many of us are very un­hap­py with them tent­ing in front of busi­ness­es. You can­not just block off High Street where our load­ing vans have to pass. Where they want us to go? This is not a good arrange­ment at all.”

Own­er of Dress Code, Wen­dell Paul, com­plained: “We have seen a de­cline in sales. It could be be­cause of the ven­dors on the streets but main­ly sales have been very slow for the sea­son even though we are of­fer­ing 30 per cent off.”

Street ven­dor Kur­win Dick said while sales were good yes­ter­day, shop­pers were buy­ing most­ly cheap items.

“This is the best I have seen in re­cent times. Peo­ple buy­ing a lot of cheap stuff. I think they should do this every day. Let us sell on the street and make a lit­tle mon­ey. Every­one will be hap­py,” he said.

Sher­iff Bab­wah, the own­er of Splash, said peo­ple were hard­ly go­ing in­to the stores.

He said: “We have seen a 60 per cent to 70 per cent de­cline in sales. We have been forced to cut staff. I don’t ap­prove of this vend­ing on High Street. Why should peo­ple be al­lowed to sell in tents in front of our stores? I have no prob­lem with the ven­dors sell­ing but it should be reg­u­lat­ed.”

Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Min­is­ter Kaz­im Ho­sein who vis­it­ed High Street yes­ter­day ap­plaud­ed the may­or and the San Fer­nan­do City Cor­po­ra­tion for the ini­tia­tive.

“The ven­dors get a chance and a lot of peo­ple shop­ping,” he said.

Re­grel­lo said the ini­tia­tive was a suc­cess and a win-win for every­one. He said last year the street was blocked off for a day but this year it was blocked off for two days and he is con­sid­er­ing ex­tend­ing it to three days next year. He thanked all the stake­hold­ers who as­sist­ed and sup­port­ed the ini­tia­tive.