Minister ‘probing market space allocations’, says BARVEN

Minister of Agriculture Indar Weir is said to be investigating the Barbados Association of Retailers Vendors and Entrepreneurs (BARVEN) claims of discrepancies surrounding the allocation of stall spaces at the new Fairchild Street Market.

BARVEN’s President Alistair Alexander said as soon as he was informed of the matter in which two vendors have been disadvantaged, Weir acted swiftly and held an urgent virtual meeting with BARVEN and the ministry’s Market’s Division last Friday, November 5.

Last week, Alexander complained to Barbados TODAY that he had contacted the Markets Division several months ago regarding Nialle Johnson, 31, who was not allocated a food stall although he has been paying for a stall in the old market since 2012 and had been given the assurance that he would be given his due.

But Manager of Markets Sherlock King has informed him that Johnson will not be allocated a food stall but rather a space to conduct another type of business, the BARVEN leader said.

Another vendor, Subrina Barrow, who has been paying for a stall at Fairchild Street for over 20 years, has been given a smaller space in the new market when that was not as well-positioned as newer stall owners who have been allocated bigger spaces, according to Alexander.

When questioned about the allocations on Monday, Weir told Barbados TODAY that he was not willing at this time to comment publicly on the matter. But Alexander said that during the meeting the minister listened attentively to the cases involving the two vendors and also what was put forward by the Markets Division.

Alexander said Weir promised that if the records and the facts supported the case brought by the vendors, a correction would be made.

He said: “He gave the Markets Division until Monday [November 8] to produce the documentation of these vendors that should give an accurate account of what they had registered with the market to do. Markets Division has alleged that both vendors had signed up for vending different to food. Both vendors have insisted they signed up for food. In the case of Mrs Barrow, the question was why she was assigned one of the smaller food stalls when others who started operations long after her have been assigned bigger ones.”

Alexander said the Markets Division has made clear that it did not assign the stalls according to who has been there the longest but the criteria for the allocation of stalls was based on who had the biggest operation and what they were selling.

If BARVEN had been involved in the allocation process, its president said, it would have contended that this criterion could not be considered fair and should not have been used.

He said: “We would have pointed out that there were those who came in late to this process and to the detriment of those who have kept to the rules are being rewarded for actually breaking the rules to have larger operations than those who were there before them.

“Those who were there first should have been given the option to occupy larger units to expand their operations. This would have been a fairer way to allocate. In the case of Mr Johnson, he was denied a food stall for which since 2012 he has been waiting for Market renovations to be able to operate.

“The minister is awaiting Market [Division’s] report and has promised to bring a just resolution to these matters. He regrets these matters had not been brought to his attention sooner. He assures us that we have open access to him as Minister of Agriculture and reminded BARVEN that it has always been so to which BARVEN concurred. We await the report and resolution.” anestahenry@barbadostoday.bb