LUCEA, Hanover — MINISTER of State in the Office of the Prime Minister with responsibility for Local Government Robert Montague is urging vendors who peddle their wares on the streets of Lucea to move inside the Cleveland Stanhope Market.

That facility was recently upgraded at a cost of $1.9 million under phase one of the Market Renovation Project.

“I don’t want anybody [to] tell me that the bathroom not clean because it is brand new; I don’t want anybody [to] tell me that the market is dirty; I don’t want anybody [to] tell me that they don’t have any space in the market because the market is what you call brand-new second-hand. So nobody have any more excuse why they have to stay out on the streets,” Montague said during last week’s reopening of the facility.

The Cleveland Stanhope facility is the first to benefit under phase one of the project aimed at upgrading markets along the north coast. Other markets targeted to undergo similar improvement are St Ann’s Bay, Brown’s Town, Oracabessa, Annotto Bay, Buff Bay, Port Antonio; and Constant Spring in Kingston.

Chairman of the Hanover Parish Council Lloyd Hill used the opportunity to urge business operators in Lucea to follow the example provided by the upgrading of the market. He said they should paint their buildings to create a more attractive town.

“The brightly painted roof and other sections of the market in the colour of the Jamaican flag adds some brightness to the otherwise dull surroundings. I am therefore taking this opportunity to appeal to the business sector within the town to take steps in this direction and improve the appearance of their buildings by doing some painting in bright colours,” Hill said.

Montague said an additional $1.1 million will be spent at the Cleveland Stanhope Market for the upgrading of the driveway, the fish market and drains at the rear of the amenity.

He explained that the Charles Gordon, in Montegto Bay, St James; Falmouth, Trelawny and Ocho Rios, St Ann markets were not included in the rehabilitation project because of separate arrangements for those facilities.

He also revealed plans to begin work on markets along the south coast during phase two of the project. Markets in Black River, St Mary, May Pen, Clarendon, and Mandeville, Manchester are numbered among those slated for renovation along the south coast.