Ot­to Car­ring­ton

Se­nior Re­porter

ot­to.car­ring­ton@cnc3.co.tt

Port-of-Spain May­or Chin­ua Al­leyne has an­nounced ex­tend­ed vend­ing days for the Christ­mas sea­son.

At yes­ter­day’s statu­to­ry meet­ing of the Port-of-Spain City Cor­po­ra­tion, Al­leyne said there was a meet­ing with the ven­dors’ as­so­ci­a­tion to se­lect spe­cif­ic days for vend­ing in the cap­i­tal city. The ex­tra days come at no ad­di­tion­al cost to ven­dors, par­tic­u­lar­ly those op­er­at­ing on Char­lotte Street.

“How­ev­er, the city still has a re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to main­tain the space, en­sur­ing that on non-vend­ing days, en­hanced san­i­ta­tion ac­tiv­i­ties can be car­ried out as usu­al. Ap­prov­ing ad­di­tion­al days in De­cem­ber is a com­mon prac­tice,” he said.

Al­leyne said ap­proval was giv­en for vend­ing ac­tiv­i­ty on Char­lotte Street from De­cem­ber 12-14, 17-24, and 27-31.

The Char­lotte Street Vend­ing Pro­gramme orig­i­nat­ed in 2006 dur­ing Car­ifes­ta and was for­malised in 2008.

“Every year, be­fore the pro­gramme recom­mences, there is a pe­ri­od where vend­ing ceas­es, al­low­ing for con­ver­sa­tions and con­sul­ta­tions be­tween the coun­cil and the as­so­ci­a­tion,” Al­leyne said.

“Dur­ing this time, we re­view what has worked, and what hasn’t, and im­ple­ment nec­es­sary changes. As we en­ter this pe­ri­od of re­view, we will con­tin­ue to en­sure that the vend­ing pro­gram re­mains sus­tain­able and ef­fec­tive.”

The may­or em­pha­sised that il­le­gal vend­ing will be ad­dressed and a ro­bust op­er­a­tional plan is al­ready be­ing rolled out through var­i­ous stake­hold­ers.