Vendors agree to keep Jubilee Gardens clean

A major clean-up exercise is planned for Jubilee Gardens in The City amid growing complaints about the unsightly state of the space.

Joy-Ann Haigh, a communications consultant for the Barbados Tourism Investment Inc., today met with vendors who were relocated to the area last year and their representative body, the Barbados Association of Vendors and Retailers (BARVEN), to discuss the exercise.

However, Haigh said the mess was not solely the problem of the vendors.

“When we spoke to them, we recognise there were other issues. Not only the vendors in this park need to comply, as some are trying to but all of them aren’t. We have a problem with the persons who are homeless and we also have a problem with people who are parking in here, in particular [those] connected to some of the vendors who are spilling oil, etc.,” she said.

Haigh, who noted that the relocation of vendors to Jubilee Gardens pending the upgrade of the Cheapside Market was only a temporary solution, said the Markets Division of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security has been looking into the situation.

“One of the suggestions from the Markets [Division] is for vendors to have collapsible tables, and so they could remove them or store them and everything could look a bit more uniformed. This is not the permanent home for the vendors, this is a temporary solution until we can find other spaces, but while they are here we want them to remember it is a park,” she said.

Haigh added that a major solution lies in tackling the problem of homelessness.

“We also want to talk to the homeless society to see how best we can help people on the street. These people need help, they need help yesterday,” she said.

President of BARVEN Alistair Alexander assured that vendors would play their part in keeping the gardens tidy.

“We expect to be responsible in whatever we do as a vending community. We require that our members be responsible. We have spoken to our members [and] . . . we will be making sure that they get the message that they have to play their part in keeping this Jubilee Gardens clean and nice,” he said.

Like Haigh, he called on authorities to address the challenge of homeless persons.

“We would like a humane resolution concerning these persons. We ought to love everybody and take care of those who may fall through the cracks, the social net, for whatever reason. But they cannot be allowed to destroy The City, or violate The City, they cannot be allowed to violate these areas [and] leave it dirty and unsightly,” Alexander insisted. (SD)