Pandemonium broke out early Monday morning as agents of the Georgetown Mayor and City Council (M&CC) began pulling down several stalls at the Bourda Market that were reportedly illegally erected.

Vendors were called from their homes at the break of dawn and arrived at the marketplace to find that several stalls had already been broken down and their goods displaced.

Scores of ranks from the City Constabulary along with few police officers, equipped with batons, were on site and averted a major confrontation as vendors began to vent their frustration.

When News Source arrived on the scene, debris was being loaded into large trucks and being towed away and several vendors were seen retrieving their commodities from the roadway.

The stalls were erected along what served as a pavement years ago and alongside a derelict building that is reportedly to be torn down and replaced.

Vendor Desiree Day, who had been selling along the street for over 40 years, said there had been ongoing meetings over the last few months concerning the Council’s intention to remove them but said no agreement had been reached.

“We even went to Office of the President… the Council was the one that made us build stalls on the pavement, every week you have to pay $1400 for your stand, if you put out anything you have to pay $300 extra…now one man come to buy this building and like the man bought the building and everybody here in the market because they want us to move from here and he come and meet us here as a market,” she vented.

Another Vendor, Ronda Nedd told News Source that she had been selling in the same spot for the last 32 years.

“These people come since 5 o’ Clock this morning and start dismantling these stands, when I meet to my stand a set of things destroys. I don’t know who will repay me,” she added.

The vendors explained that City Hall is now saying that their structures are illegal when the same City Hall has been collecting weekly rental from them for the same spots.

No official from City Hall was on the ground to offer any explanations.

Last Week, as part of its restoration Georgetown activities, the M&CC launched the Green Volunteer Corps.

At that launch, the Council had indicated a move to clamp down illegal vending around the city.

At that event, Deputy Mayor Patricia Chase Green said the Council has been lenient with vendors over the years and indicated that going forward it was expected that they would comply with the council’s request as they work to clean the city.

City Mayor Hamilton Green had said too that while the undertaking was not easy it needed to be done.

Already, several organizations, businesses and individuals have donated materials to aid in the clean up campaign which started on Sunday.

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