Falmouth vending ban to stay for Christmas – mayor
Published:Saturday | November 23, 2019 | 12:23 AMChristopher Thomas/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
Falmouth Mayor Collen Gager has reaffirmed that vendors will not be permitted to ply their wares illegally in the Trelawny parish capital’s historic Water Square during the upcoming Christmas season.
Gager said the town would come alive on December 11 with the lighting of a public Christmas tree, signalling the start of the business end of the holiday season.
Vendors have been playing a cat-and-mouse game with the authorities in recent months following a ban on hawking in the square, which was imposed by the Trelawny Municipal Corporation.
“We’re expecting pushback because people will always want to break rules, but we hope they will understand when they see what we are doing there,” said Gager in an interview with journalists following Wednesday’s staging of the second annual Junior Mayors’ Forum at the St James Municipal Corporation.
“We’re working closely with the police, and we’re making sure we have additional municipal wardens that will come out and keep the place intact.”
In 2017, the Falmouth Municipal Corporation declared Water Square off-limits for vending after the area was reconfigured to keep out vendors and vehicular traffic. However, vendors have regularly been in breach, especially at nights when some would set up stalls in the town centre in defiance of the ban.
To ensure that vendors have a place to operate, Gager said the municipality will be erecting a tent and putting in additional accommodation for Falmouth’s Grand Market, which will operate on the outskirts of the town.
“We are focusing on our ‘grand market’ on the market compound, so we are providing special lighting facilities that will accommodate that sort of setting. We have booked two large sound systems that will be played down by the market facilities, plus we’re getting a large tent down there to accommodate the overflow of vendors and shoppers,” said Gager.
The mayor added: “We have to take a stand when it comes to protecting Water Square. We want it to remain a walk-through town, where you walk, sit down, chat with your friends, have a good time, and where people are free to go into any business place they choose.”