A MASSIVE clean-up at the Ministry of Agriculture’s Palmetto Mall And Market in Bridgetown yesterday morning yielded a pile of refuse almost ten feet tall.
Items removed included more than 150 card boxes which had once held fruits and vegetables, as well as broken plastic chairs, sheets of plywood, empty plastic bottles, wooden pallets, spoilt fruits and styrofoam material.
It was reported to be a major “industrial cleaning” ordered by the Markets Division of the ministry, driven partly by concerns about a “poor grade” some had given the City complex. Several of the card boxes dumped were said to have been “lying around” the stalls for years.
“All of this stuff came from downstairs [where fruits and vegetables are sold],” a woman familiar with the market’s operations said of the pile.
“If the vendors not keeping the place neat and tidy and sanitary, then the Government will have to do it, but that isn’t how it should be.”
A privately-owned truck with two skips was called in to remove the refuse, a job requiring several trips to the dump.
Police were also summoned to monitor the clean-up, following reports that one stall operator was trying to hold on to several boxes earmarked for disposal and had transferred them upstairs.
The size of the pile of refuse surprised several motorists and pedestrians. They just could not believe all that “stuff” came from inside the market.
