The peace and tranquility of Sunday afternoon was abruptly disrupted for food vendor Monique Best when she got a call informing her that she had to clear her vending space in the Bay Garden at Oistins in Christ Church.
Best, who took over the operations of Shirley’s Food Hut in June, when her adopted mother Shirley Roberts passed away, told Barbados TODAY that her attorney-at-law Senior Counsel Ralph Thorne told her that officials from the National Conservation Commission (NCC) where going to the food kiosk to change the locks and enact an eviction process.
“When I came the police told me I don’t have the legal right to operate here. They told me I had to remove my stuff from here but I told them I had nowhere to store the items. So I was told the NCC workers would change the locks but leave the stuff inside and I had until tomorrow (Monday) to remove everything,” she said.
Best said she could not give a definite value of the items, including commercial appliances, beverages and other stock, but added that it was “several thousands dollars” worth of valuables.
In a letter addressed to Thorne on July 28, 2023, the NCC’s attorney Arthur Holder informed Best that she had no legal right to take over the business.
Holder said that based on the NCC’s lease agreement, Roberts was prohibited from transferring the operation to Best and thus there was no contractual relationship between Best and NCC.
The letter added that kiosk #1 was allocated to another interested party and a lease between that person and NCC took effect from August 1, 2023.
The document instructed Best to remove her property from the kiosk by August 31.
Subsequently, Thorne said that he and his client were going to take the matter to court.
Meanwhile on Sunday Best said this development was taking a toll on her mental state as she was still in the grieving process and wanted to carry on the legacy of her adopted mother.
Roberts’ daughter, who did not state her name, said her mother regarded Best as her own child although she was not a blood relative.
She said that before her mother died she always wanted Best to run the business, adding that Best was paying the rental fees for a while.
Roberts was a longtime food vendor at Oistins having operated her business for close to three decades. Throughout the years, Best was by her side assisting and running the kiosk on her own when Roberts fell ill.
(SZB)
