KEVON FELMINE

Se­nior Re­porter

kevon.felmine@guardian.co.tt

San Fer­nan­do May­or Robert Par­ris has con­firmed that street vend­ing on High Street will not be per­mit­ted this Christ­mas, end­ing a long-stand­ing hol­i­day tra­di­tion in the city cen­tre.

Par­ris ex­plained that the de­ci­sion fol­lows wide­spread non­com­pli­ance dur­ing last year’s tem­po­rary au­tho­ri­sa­tion, when ven­dors re­fused to op­er­ate with­in des­ig­nat­ed ar­eas at Lord Street and Har­ris Prom­e­nade.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia in Mara­bel­la yes­ter­day, the may­or said the San Fer­nan­do City Cor­po­ra­tion (SFCC) had gone out of its way to ac­com­mo­date ven­dors in 2024, con­struct­ing a venue on the prom­e­nade for use with­in a set time frame. How­ev­er, many ven­dors de­fied the arrange­ment and con­tin­ued oc­cu­py­ing High Street il­le­gal­ly af­ter the au­tho­rised pe­ri­od end­ed.

“This year, we in­tend to main­tain law and or­der,” Par­ris said. “We had the sup­port of the mu­nic­i­pal po­lice and TTPS in re­mov­ing the ven­dors. Vend­ing is il­le­gal. Last year, we gave them the op­por­tu­ni­ty, but this year, they should give us the op­por­tu­ni­ty to al­low le­gal vend­ing. We have pro­vid­ed fa­cil­i­ties for them, and I do not want to have a prob­lem with any­one.”

The may­or not­ed that when he first as­sumed of­fice, the SFCC re­ceived sev­er­al le­gal let­ters from busi­ness­es claim­ing that il­le­gal vend­ing in­fringed on their rights.

“The coun­cil was forced to act quick­ly,” he said.

Par­ris em­pha­sised that vend­ing has not been banned en­tire­ly. Ven­dors are en­cour­aged to use fa­cil­i­ties at the Cen­tral and Mara­bel­la mar­kets, as well as the Fruit Court at Har­ris Prom­e­nade.

“We have pro­vid­ed enough op­por­tu­ni­ties for them to legal­ly ply their trade. Change is dif­fi­cult in our so­ci­ety, but it is in­evitable. To ef­fec­tive­ly run the city, we have to obey the laws of the land,” he said.

He added that the SFCC has worked close­ly with po­lice to en­sure ven­dors can con­tin­ue earn­ing an in­come, but with­in le­gal bound­aries.

As City Month cel­e­bra­tions be­gan yes­ter­day, Par­ris an­nounced that ac­tiv­i­ties would be scaled back due to tight fund­ing. Some sav­ings will come from not host­ing the an­nu­al mil­i­tary pa­rade, a de­ci­sion in­flu­enced by the on­go­ing State of Emer­gency.

In a his­toric first, the Kr­ish­na Mandir on Todd Street will host this year’s in­ter­faith ser­vice, mark­ing the first time the event will take place out­side the Chris­t­ian faith. The tem­ple will host and cater the ser­vice at no cost to the city.

“We have nev­er had an in­ter­faith ser­vice out­side of the Chris­t­ian faith. Trinidad and To­ba­go is a mul­ti­cul­tur­al, mul­ti-re­li­gious so­ci­ety, and we want to cel­e­brate with our East In­di­an broth­ers and sis­ters,” Par­ris said.

City Month ac­tiv­i­ties are main­ly fund­ed through busi­ness do­na­tions, as gov­ern­ment sub­ven­tions usu­al­ly ar­rive af­ter the cel­e­bra­tions. The may­or has in­struct­ed staff to in­clude rev­enue-gen­er­at­ing el­e­ments in the events.

Carib Brew­ery will spon­sor an event on No­vem­ber 22, which will be cel­e­brat­ed as Carib Day in San Fer­nan­do. Par­ris said the SFCC is work­ing close­ly with the busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty, not­ing that pro­mot­ers pay the cor­po­ra­tion to ad­ver­tise events on the City Month cal­en­dar — a col­lab­o­ra­tion that helps sus­tain city op­er­a­tions.