MONTEGO BAY, Jamaica: The St James Municipal Corporation has reaffirmed its commitment to tightening the measures on vendors who sell outside designated areas in downtown Montego Bay, St James.

Addressing a Jamaica Information Service (JIS) ‘Think Tank’ held at the offices of the St James Municipal Corporation earlier this week, Mayor of Montego Bay, Councillor Leeroy Williams, said there will be a crackdown on street vendors who continue to operate outside of the designated vending zones in the city.

“I would like to remind the vendors that vending should be done in the designated areas and to also remind them that St James Street remains a no-vending street,” he said noting that registered vendors are only allowed to ply their wares at Lower Market Street, Church Lane, Lower Lawrence Lane, Lower Union Street, Lower Corner Lane, Orange Street and a section of St Claver Avenue.

Indicating that migrant vendors are primarily responsible for the congestion on the streets of the city, Mayor Williams said he and his team “remain committed to managing street vending in the downtown city space” even as disobedience and non-compliance continue to be a challenge.

“Even though we have put structures in place to facilitate orderly vending, itinerant vendors continue to flout the rules and regulations governing our city space. It is going to take a greater level of enforcement to get some semblance of conformity,” he said as he called on vendors and other stakeholders to play their part in achieving ‘public order in the city.’

Mayor Williams then went on to reiterate the Municipal Corporation’s plan to construct a multi-storey vendors’ arcade on the site of the Old Shoe Market, located at the corner of St James and Strand Streets in Montego Bay, which will benefit vendors.