LINSTEAD, St Catherine – Fruit vendors along Kent Village and the Bog Walk Gorge in St Catherine will not be relocated during the six weeks of Cricket World Cup which begins in March, as was reported last weekend.

They were, however, warned to keep their stalls in an “immaculate and presentable condition”.

Social Development Commission (SDC) regional director Dwayne Vernon met with the vendors yesterday and assured them that they would not be relocated.

“.The LOC (Local Organising Committee) is not interested in displacing anyone. What they are asking though is that there be no harassment of visitors and for vendors to keep their stalls clean and tidy,” Vernon told the more than 70 vendors at a meeting of the Linstead Development Area Committee, held at the Holy Trinity Anglican Church Hall in the town.

Last weekend vendors along the road became restless after reports circulated that they would be relocated during the Cricket World Cup festival, and threatened to block the roads if they were not allowed to sell. They subsequently called on the St Catherine Parish Council to explain why they should relocate.

Vernon said yesterday that he had no information from neither the National Works Agency (NWA) nor the parish council to relocate vendors.

But Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) candidate for East Central St Catherine Leslie Campbell expressed pessimism about Vernon’s statement, and told the meeting that while he was pleased that the LOC has no plans to remove the vendors, there was in fact some intention by the National Solid Waste Management Agency (NSWMA) to move the vendors.

“I am concerned because word has come to me that there is likely to be some intervention by the NSWMA and that is where my real concern is because where the LOC can say that it has no interest in removing the vendors you know that committee cannot speak on behalf of the NSWMA nor the NWA nor the parish council at all. So that is the real concern and I must tell you I really feel uncomfortable to see these people being removed after all,” Campbell told the Observer after the meeting.

The JLP candidate said he would be making contact with NSWMA, but vowed to “vehemently object” to the vendors’ relocation.

“We certainly would like to facilitate them so I will be asking the authorities just to do whatever it can to facilitate them over the period because they have been there for over 20 years and (they) have come to expect that their livelihood would continue.. and not because of Cricket World Cup we shouldn’t sacrifice everything on the altar of expediency. We ought not to,” Campbell said.