WESTERN BUREAU — Vendors in the People’s Arcade in Montego Bay have come out in defense of the facility which their counterparts, who are resisting efforts to have them relocated from the Old Shoe Market, have described as unsuitable.

In an obvious endorsement of the St James Parish Council’s plans to remove vendors from the Creek Street site, arcade vendors contend that many of their peers have shops at the Howard Cooke facility but chose to sell on the streets out of greed and selfishness.

Street vendors have long complained that the arcade is an unsuitable site, and have resisted efforts to get them to ply their wares from the facility.

“The atmosphere not convenient,” said vendor Maureen Williams.

“There are just higglers and no buyers and everything dusty. Everything bad about it,” she said of the three-acre facility located adjacent to the Montego Bay Transport Centre.

Williams pointed out that buyers preferred the Old Shoe Market because it was centrally located and they could do business all night.

Gloria Wright supported her colleague’s claims, stating that they could not do any business at the arcade while business was brisk and profitable at the Old Shoe Market.

“Are we that stupid to go somewhere where we cannot get a good return on our investment?” she said.

She argued that the arcade was unsafe and inconvenient.

“That place is for parking buses, not for business,” she contended, suggesting that the Council lease the site to transport operators.

But while admitting that there were some problems with lighting, most arcade vendors said that they were pleased with their surroundings. Some stretched the olive branch of peace to their Creek Street counterparts.

“If they come together with us things will be better,” Donnette Dixon told the Observer. “If some are at east and some are at west how they expect things to get better?”

And she rebutted claims that the arcade was unsafe, saying that businesses could remain open as late as owners saw fit, as others showed off the immaculate conditions of the sanitary conveniences.

“Over here clean and lookable,” Dixon said. “We are happy over here.”

Meanwhile, the St James Parish Council is to unveil, within the next two weeks, yet another plan to remove the over 50 persons occupying the Old Shoe Market site, according to secretary/manager Christopher Powell.

“The (plan to remove them) still stands. They have to be removed and we are going to remove them,” he told the Observer.

Vendors were initially given a February 25th relocation deadline, after a January 31st deadline could not be enforced as the repairs to the arcade were not complete. The Council then allowed vendors temporary haven at the Old Shoe Market, as part of its initiative to stave off illegal street vending.