As part of efforts to ensure that vendors operating in the vicinity of the Georgetown Public Hospital vacate the area, the Town Clerk Candace Nelson has asked the City Constabulary to make regular checks there.
Speaking to the News Room on Wednesday, Nelson said the vendors will have to vacate the area on Thursday, three days after she received a lawyer’s letter. According to the letter, the hospital’s lawyer will seek a mandamus from the court if vendors do not abide by this timeframe.
A mandamus is a judicial order that compels a government official, public agency, or lower court to perform a mandatory or ministerial duty required by law.
She said the Constabulary was unable to enforce the previous movement despite previous notices because the vendors are there during the weekends.
“I asked them to do regular checks to ensure that those persons move. The issue that we have is that during the day, you don’t really find a lot of vending there. From my understanding they go between the afternoon and on weekends.
“We will have to set up special exercises to visit there on weekends.,” she said.
This is a decade-long issue as the hospital has written to the authorities in 2015, 2016, 2019 and again in 2022, citing the threat posed by the obstruction of the traffic, particularly for ambulant vehicles and patients who are seeking care at the GPHC.
The hospital has said the inundation of unauthorised street vending along the New Market and East Street pavements not only congests the pathways for ambulances and patients but also poses a challenge for keeping the hospital’s environs clean. Noise nuisance is also a concern.
The hospital continues to warn vendors that failure to vacate the area will result in them facing legal action.
Meanwhile, Nelson also said that property owners returning to the court for contempt of proceedings is a concern for the council.
“We do not have the resources to really monitor the areas that are covered by mandamus the way that we should because we have limited resources and it’s really affecting us because we are unable to monitor properly, the vendors are coming back,” she said
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