Port of Spain city police move vendors

In an effort to make shopping safer in downtown Port of Spain leading up to Christmas Day, the city police yesterday moved some 50 illegal vendors, including non-nationals, off Charlotte Street and neighbouring streets.

But by mid-afternoon a number of them had returned.

Supt Glen Charles told Newsday that the vendors, the majority of whom were from out of the city, were told to stop their illegal activity.

During the exercise, he said, the city police also detained four Guyanese who were vending without licences or work permits. They were to be handed over to the Immigration Department’s detention centre.

The police also wrecked 16 vehicles in Charlotte Street and issued 23 tickets for breaching traffic signs.

The vendors, Charles said, were removed from the pavements on Charlotte Street, Frederick Street, South Quay, Henry and Queen Streets, where they were blocking pedestrian traffic. Some vendors were also moved from Independence Square north and south.

Charles said yesterday’s exercise will intensify in the coming days and weeks in the lead-up to Carnival Monday and Tuesday in an effort to deal with larceny and pickpockets.

He advised people not to wear expensive jewelry or carry large sums of money when shopping, and to be aware of their surroundings. The City Police Department, he said, has been getting a lot of reports of larceny by pickpockets and snatchers of cellphones.

Representative of the Charlotte Street vendors Melba Boxhill welcomed the move by the police to move the illegal “seasonal” vendors who only come to downtown Port of Spain during the Christmas season. But one vendor told Newsday this was a sad time for vendors as there was no accommodation for them to take advantage of the season. “In the past,” he said, “the last government gave us Salvatori site. Now they run us from there and we have nowhere to go.”

Another vendor who was moved from Charlotte Street but was selling on Queen Street yesterday afternoon said, “These last few days before Christmas, I don’t think they should be running us off the street. To make matters worse, this Christmas is slower than the last one. It really, really slow. We catching we tail to make a lil dollar out here.”