WITHIN the next three weeks, the Palmetto Market will finally open its doors to vendors, two years after they had originally been scheduled to begin selling their wares from that location.
Manager of markets Henderson Greaves, while overseeing the move of vendors from Cavans Lane back to Independence Square, yesterday revealed that the market was now ready, after the necessary changes had been made.
Although he said the full details would be given through the Government Information Service after a meeting with vendors to discuss operational procedures, Greaves stated that problems vendors had identified in relation to the sunlight and the heat had been corrected.
“One section of the market will now be air-conditioned, and the open area where the vendors will operate now has decorative shade curtains in the ceiling to reduce the ultra violet rays from the sun,” he stated.
He noted the area, which will house 28 vegetable vendors and 30 stalls for clothing and variety shops, would also have a number of fans to keep the facility cool.
As vendors packed up yesterday and moved just across the road into the new kiosks provided by Barbados Tourism Investment Inc. (BTII), Greaves said the vendors had pointed out a few areas of concern, but he gave the assurance that the Markets Division would be working with them over time to make the area more functional.
“I am happy that all the vendors have accepted their assigned spaces and have moved without controversy or complaint,” he said.
Greaves, in calling attention to one stall which had rain protection – one of the vendors’ concerns – disclosed that the BTII had initially planned to provide covers, but abandoned the idea after realizing how expensive it would have been to cover all eight stalls.
Meanwhile, taxi men were happy to be back at their former base on Cavans Lane.
“This move was a long time in coming, not only for us, but for the restaurants ’cause [the stalls] were blocking the whole entrance,” one taxi man stated.
Vendors, too, were happy to be moved. As one fruit vendor said, he was tired of the “harassment” of those operating in the nearby waterfront area.
“I’m glad to get from over there. All I would like now is a little water and some electricity because we work out here until 7 p.m. I bring a five-gallon bucket of water every day to wash the fruits and my hands, but the area could do with a pipe to hose down the areas sometimes after work,” Martin Felix stated.