Sidewalk vendors in Castries city
Dear Sir,
As we wind down on the year 2013 and will be welcoming the New Year, we the vendors are frustrated and wondering what plans if any the Castries City Council has to solve the vending problems, other than to raise the vending price in the new year.
We the vendors just got confirmed news that the Castries City Council will be raising the price of vending around the city sidewalk at an additional cost of $3.00. We were made to pay $25.00 for vendors’ registration and identification card since 2010 by the council with indication that we were going to get IDs and vending booths that would replace the current structures we now using.
The council collected our money and nothing has happened since then. We are calling on the authorities to do something to help better our business practices.
The principal of the schools where we are vending keep complaining and saying that thieves and bandits are using some of the structures to enter the school grounds.
We don’t know what to do. Government cannot create employment for all of us and vending is one of the ways in which we can sustain employment and earn a decent living.
Government after Government seems not to have any solution for what they call a problem.
Please, we are calling on the City Council not to increase the vending fees unless they can address our problems.
Concerned vendors
Castries.