Police and health officials have launched a coordinated effort to regulate roadside vendors along the ABC Highway following warnings that the growing trade poses a serious traffic hazard, particularly in the busy Warrens area of St Michael.
A public health officer from the nearby Eunice Gibson Polyclinic visited the Warrens vending site on Thursday afternoon to ensure vendors, especially those selling coconut water, were operating in accordance with public health procedures.
The Barbados Police Service also disclosed its intention to heighten its presence in the area to enforce traffic safety regulations and compliance with an agreement reached between vendors and management of the adjoining Dome Mall.
This comes on the heels of concerns expressed in the Senate by Independent Senator Andrew Mallalieu on Wednesday during the budget debate about the potential danger which vending is posing, especially in Warrens when motorists are transacting business with the retailers next to the busy highway.
“The situation now is getting worse,” Senator Mallalieu told the Chamber, “because it seems our road side vendors have not only taken over the verge, but in the Warrens area, they have taken over the entire lane. You stop now in the left lane to collect your goods that are being produced in the verge now, you down to one lane. That is true, and I don’t know how we are continuing on to do this.”
The prominent businessman pointed out that apart from the coconut water which he likes, one can now buy watermelons, eggs, fruit, and more recently clothes from at the side of the road.
“We must really do something about this. We cannot be building tens of million-dollar highways for this to happen. It is dangerous. I would like to know what’s going to happen…God forbid that someone is killed…but there is going to be an accident, someone is going to be hurt. This needs to come to an end,” the legislator insisted.
But when a team from Barbados TODAY visited the Warrens strip on Thursday, the vendors were seen operating from the grassy area of the waterway leaving a clear path along the shoulder of the highway.
The consensus among the vendors is that the Warrens area was ideal for doing business and that they were not putting anybody’s lives in danger.
A fruit seller who preferred to remain anonymous said she was leaving everything to God when asked to respond to a suggestion that they be removed. “Massy gave us permission to sell on their property. That part there belongs to the government [pointing to the shoulder of the highway]. They [government] tell us they don’t want us selling on the road, so we selling here on the grassy area that belong to Massy,” she explained.
“We aint putting anybody’s life in danger. We could be here standing now and a car could run off the road and take our lives. We don’t have any control over who gets hurt or not,” another fruit seller declared, adding that he was only making an honest living.
“If they move we, where they’re going to put we? That don’t make any sense,” contended a coconut vendor.
Amidst public complaints that some coconut vendors were not cleaning up at the end of their business day, public health officials on Thursday put them on notice of the requirement to fix that.
Law enforcers are also on a mission to ensure law and order are maintained by the vendors.
Communications and Public Affairs Officer of the Barbados Police Service Inspector Ryan Brathwaite, recalled that three meetings were held between the senior command team of the police service and the Barbados Association of Retailers, Vendors and Entrepreneurs (BARVEN), and that they had visited the Warrens site three times where police spoke to the vendors.
“They also engaged the facility manager at the Dome Mall. So, coming out of these meetings, it was agreed that the vendors would vend on that grassy bank area there by the car park as opposed to coming down on the road way. So, the verge…if people want to utilise the services of the vendors, the persons would pull off on the verge and then approach the vendors,” Inspector Brathwaite told Barbados TODAY.
“That,” he assured, “is being monitored by the police to ensure that there is compliance.” Questioned as to whether there are any particular concerns about motorists pulling off the road and back on, the police spokesman replied: “We probably should look at putting signage in the area. Also, you have to look at if people drive with utmost care and due care, use their indicators when they are about to move off…hand signals, the good old-fashioned way of driving; alert others of any manoeuvres that would be happening, then, it might be able to function safely.”
Inspector. Brathwaite explained that the signage of which he spoke, could be ‘no vending on the verge.’ “That is one of the considerations,” he added, “that we would move towards. But we will try to maintain a police presence in the area to ensure that there is compliance on what was agreed to. We will continue to monitor, and any complaints coming in from the public, we will always try to address and deal with them. But we will continue to monitor.”
Vending legislation is currently in the works.
emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb
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