VENDORS at the Linstead Market in St Catherine are seething in anger over the less than desirable conditions in which they are now selling their wares.

When the Jamaica Observer visited the historic market last Wednesday, vendors were seen using brooms to push away large pools of water that had settled on the ground and first floors of the facility due to heavy rains that had pelted the bustling rural town two days earlier.

There were gaping holes at various points in the roof and water was still dripping in some sections.

Nardia Palmer sells clothing and other non-perishable goods inside the half-finished market building, and although she had been dealt a hard blow after most of her stock was soaked by the rains, she managed to crack a weak smile as she explained her predicament.

“All my goods soak even though them inside a locker. Things hard for wi inside here, sir. It bad,” Palmer told the Observer as she used a badly frayed broom to push away water.

A few feet from where Palmer worked to get her business in order, another vendor, Patricia Spencer, had a stern look on her face.

“The water a bother wi. Wi suffer when rain fall. My feet are swollen as I work in water for hours to pack up my goods. I never see this in all my life! I grow up in Linstead Market, my mother used to sell in here and I never see it so bad yet,” Spencer said.

The market was closed for renovation last year after the Urban Development Corporation (UDC) approved a $29-million contract for Tank Weld Fabrication to carry out a portion of the renovation work.

However, the company packed up its tools and left after a dispute developed over the amount of money agreed on between the company and the UDC.

No work has been done for at least a month, the vendors complained.

According to Tank Weld Fabrication’s Financial Controller Paige Todd, the company was forced to pull up anchor after an official at the UDC constantly tried to underpay for work that was completed.

“They kept reducing claims that were put in for money to be paid. Our managing director [Louis Aitken] said that if that was not sorted out the work cannot continue. This has been going on for over a month. However, most of what we were contracted to do has been completed. We were not contracted to do the roof, although we told them that it was bad,” Todd explained.

A representative from the UDC promised to return calls to the agency seeking a comment, but up to press time last night, none was forthcoming.

In the meantime, the vendors are left to battle the elements and their livelihood is being seriously affected.

But the complaints were not limited to vendors who sell in the incomplete structure. Since January 1 this year, some vendors were relocated to a temporary facility in the old bus and taxi stand located at King Street in the town.

They had a litany of complaints, chief among them the loss in business as a result of their relocation.

The vendors sell in an open space and use tarpaulins to shield them from the sun and rain. When the rains are heavy and the winds pick up, however, the tarpaulins are of little use.

“We a sell in a river. We can’t stay here, no way. Mi glad yuh come and see the hog sty that we have to sell in,” one irate female vendor hollered.

The vendors also complain that they are plagued by mosquitoes, have to contend with toilets that are cleaned irregularly and used by persons to carry out sexual acts at nights, and are targeted by thieves who make of with their produce regularly.

“Dem tief wi goods, and nuh care how wi beg the police fi patrol the market dem nuh business wid wi. Man all pull gun pan man, and wi tell dem and all now dem no step up dem patrol in this old market yah,” one vendor said.