By Trudy Simpson, Staff Reporter
Simpson Miller
THE JAMAICA Chamber of Commerce says it will push strongly at today's meeting with Portia Simpson Miller, the Local Government Minister, for the clean-up and redevelopment of downtown Kingston and other sections of the Corporate Area.
The meeting, to be held at the Local Government Ministry, is scheduled for 10 a.m..
"We are just going to discuss the restart of the urban renewal process, which has dragged over the last three years. We have a new Minister, so we are going to brief her as to what our problems are and what our requests are for downtown and the whole city of Kingston," said Michael Ammar, Jnr., chairman of the Chamber. He added that the meeting would also serve to brief the Minister on burning Local Government issues such as disorder in downtown.
The Chamber of Commerce has long complained about declining business and investment downtown resulting from lawlessness and disorder.
It said that the situation was made worse by scores of vendors who continue to take over streets and block sidewalks in no-vending areas, despite several attempts by the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation (KSAC) to remove them.
The KSAC said yesterday that it would continue removing stalls from these streets this weekend.
Among the areas to be tackled are sections of North Parade and Beckford Street, said Town Clerk Errol Greene. He said there would be more members of the security forces out. The removal is part of an action plan which began several weeks ago amid verbal protests by the vendors and their associations. The plan is now in phase three.
In an effort to create long-term improvement downtown, there was a meeting held Wednesday between the associations which represent more than 2,000 vendors and the Chamber of Commerce.
Representatives reportedly signed and formally endorsed a six-point agreement aimed at revitalising business and restoring order downtown.
The vendors and merchants agreed on: 1) the return of law and order to downtown King-ston; 2) to support vending in prescribed legal areas; 3) the endorsement of the Downtown Redevelopment Plan developed and initially presented by the chamber but not supported by vendors; and 4), a joint consultative meeting involving the KSAC, the Local Government Ministry and the National Security Ministry.
The United Vendors' Association (UVA) expressed its concern about the rural bus terminus, near to the Coronation Market, West Kingston.
"It is of immediate concern to vendors and persons who use there... because violence often takes centre stage in this bus terminus and they are very far from the hub of things," a UVA official said Wednesday.
Officials expressed concerns and called for the relocation of buses from areas around Parade.
The Town Clerk said he had no problem about removing buses from congested areas along Parade and had already started looking for other locations for them, with the aid of Metropolitan Transport Holdings.
He, however, dismissed requests for relocation of the rural bus terminus, stating that the terminus has been there for decades and there was no place to which officials could move it. He said that site did not interfere with trade, as brisk business was conducted there, making it one of the "cash cows" for the market district.
The final point of the plan called for the launch of a series of promotional activities for downtown, Kingston involving the KSAC, the Chamber and the vendors associations.
Officials from the UVA and Dunstan Whittingham, the head of the Jamaica Vendors, Higglers and Markets Asso-ciation, hope to have meetings to further discuss the issues within the next few weeks, especially with Christmas around the corner.
