Port-of-Spain Mayor Raymond Tim Kee says he will not be swayed and is prepared to make a jail before changing his decision on illegal vending along the strip at the Queen’s Park Savannah.
He was speaking with members of the media after the media launch of the Downtown Carnival 2016 at the City Corporation, Port-of-Spain.
He comments were in response to the objections from vendors and members of the public concerning health and safety matters.
At a press conference last week the vendors said they would not leave the area or stop vending because there were no rats or health issues.
“No, I am prepared to go to jail, I am prepared for them to pelt missiles because it is wrong to encourage it,” he said yesterday.
Tim Kee added he was not against vending but the purpose of relocating the vendors was to upgrade the area.
“Why should the corporation be moving against vendors who trying to make a living?
“The mayor depends on reports of the health department who are the experts and when they bring evidence concerning the rat issue and you see the pictures of the rats in the Savannah, you know they are well fed because of nutrition,” he added.
He said they saw photographs of huge dead rats and there was a sewage main running along the nearby bathroom and there was no running water.
Tim Kee said he went there to buy corn soup and jerk chicken and saw the conditions for himself.
When asked whether the Carnival booths would be available to the vendors, he said: “We are stopping it to treat the area. We want to ensure the patrons are protected.
“The vendors have to take care of their refuse and we have a responsibility that the people who patronise are not affected.”
Tim Kee said hard decisions have to be made and he was doing it for the city.
He said homeless people in Port-of-Spain was another issue that needed to be dealt with.
“When we take Immigration down there (town) is ten people they picking up. We wash here from midnight everyday and until we take care of the homeless our city would be in a mess.
“There is no place in the jail and they have no money to pay a fine. There are 61 of them (homeless people) living around the Savannah alone,” he said.
Tim Kee said there must be a venue for homeless people.
“Riverside is a carpark and that is what it is suppose to be,” he said, referring to the shelter which occupies half of the carpark in East Port-of-Spain.