Rhon­da Krys­tal Ram­bal­ly

Days af­ter Plan­ning and Econ­o­my Min­is­ter Dr Bhoen­dra­datt Tewarie said the va­cant Sal­va­tori build­ing site will be used as a car park, Port-of-Spain May­or Louis Sing said it will now ac­com­mo­date ven­dors for the Christ­mas sea­son. He al­so said a tri­al of the park and ride op­tion will be­come avail­able by the end of next week. Lee Sing told the me­dia the ven­dors will re­turn to the site at the cor­ner of Fred­er­ick and In­de­pen­dence Square by next week. He said on Tues­day he met with the Down­town Own­ers and Mer­chants As­so­ci­a­tion (DO­MA). It was DO­MA who pro­posed the site be used as car park.

He said: "De­spite what you may have read that Sal­va­tori has been ear­marked to be used as a car park, DO­MA at its meet­ing with us yes­ter­day (Tues­day) in­di­cat­ed that they did make an ap­pli­ca­tion for it but giv­en the plans of the city they were quite pre­pared to con­cede that we will con­tin­ue to con­duct the Sal­va­tori street mar­ket." Lee Sing was speak­ing at a press con­fer­ence yes­ter­day at City Hall, Knox Street in Port-of-Spain to dis­cuss plans for Car­ni­val 2012. He said ven­dors will now set up stalls fac­ing north to south in­stead of east to west like last year. He said on­ly those "on the fringes" did well last year.

Lee Sing al­so said that Char­lotte Street from Duke Street to In­de­pen­dence Square will be "pedes­tri­anised," to ac­com­mo­date the Char­lotte Street Vend­ing Pro­gramme. Fred­er­ick Street be­tween Queen and In­de­pen­dence Square will al­so be "pedes­tri­anised." The ven­dors will be per­mit­ted to ply their trade on Thurs­days, Fri­days and Sat­ur­days and no street vend­ing will be al­lowed on Sun­days. Char­lotte Street ven­dors will how­ev­er, be al­lowed to vend from De­cem­ber 19 to 24. Re­gard­ing the park and ride, Lee Sing said peo­ple will be en­cour­aged to park at the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um and at the Car­los John Av­enue, Queen's Park Sa­van­nah and take a shut­tle in­to the city.