By Nagra Plunkett, Staff ReporterWESTERN BUREAU:
VENDORS INSIDE the Old Shoes Market in downtown Montego Bay continue to defy the St. James Parish Council's notice to leave the area and the municipal authority is tight-lipped about what it will do next.
Amid reports of imminent action to forcibly remove them, the Commercial Manager at the St. James Parish Council, Hayden Marks, re-stated the council's intention to have the vendors relocated.
"There is no doubt that they will have to leave the location. The council has already said that. It is just for the council to act, but I am not in a position to reveal when it will do so," Mr. Marks said, adding "the council was trying to use moral persuasion rather than confrontation in getting them to move".
The council's Secretary/Manager, Christopher Powell, could not be reached for comment yesterday. The vendors were offered the Old Shoes Market as a temporary vending area on December 19 last year with an understanding that they would operate there until January 31.
After this deadline, they were required to move over to the People's Arcade on Howard Cooke Boulevard but they were given an extension to stay inside the market until February 25 to facilitate upgrading work at the arcade.
The vendors have maintained that they have no intention of leaving their present location. They insist that the arcade was not suitable from an economic standpoint and that customers were reluctant to shop there, as they fear for their safety.
