MANDEVILLE, Manchester – Security and political leaders here say the enforcement of the no-vending stance for the streets of this south-central town will be maintained, and expanded to other towns in short order.

“The town cannot continue to be what it is and so the police are doing their work,” mayor of Mandeville Donovan Mitchell told vendors on Tuesday, a day after the police clamped down on street vending on Manchester Road in Mandeville.

Mitchell chaired a meeting at Manchester Municipal Corporation to hear the concerns of the vendors, including the need for repairs in the Mandeville market.

“We have the intention of doing some repairs to the market; it is some two hundred and odd million dollars. We are going to be taking it step by step. We have cleaned out the fish house to take out some of the scent. We have [cleaned] the meat house. We have spent $500,000 fixing up the bathroom in the market. We are going to be looking at areas of the roof that are leaking,” he explained.

The meeting, which was streamed on social media platform TikTok, also included the police.

Meanwhile, Inspector Simon McCormack, sub-officer in charge of the Mandeville Police Station, claimed that people are deliberately blocking the view of surveillance cameras in the town centre.

“I notice a trend where they put up the tarpaulins [to block] the CCTV cameras. They do it intentionally, because they know that the cameras cannot view beyond it. That is a major concern,” he said while pointing out that the police receive at least 15 reports of pickpocketing per week in the town centres.

Head of the Manchester police, Deputy Superintendent Carey Duncan told journalists that Mandeville has also rolled out its beat officer patrol programme.

“We are partnering also with the parish council [municipal police]. They, along with our military partners, give us very good support. We will be out in our numbers until the idea that we are trying to sell of public order is bought by the people,” he added.

Duncan, during his address at a community meeting in Plowden, south Manchester, said the enforcement efforts will be expanded to other towns.

“We are looking at regaining our thoroughfares, and we have started with our pilot being in Mandeville town centre where we are saying that: ‘You can’t just put your goods anywhere and sell,’ so we are on a drive now to ensure that public order is maintained in the Mandeville town centre,” he said.

“In short order this will be replicated in other major town centres – Spalding, Christiana and Porus. We know that when we have the issue of public disorder it also breeds crime, [including] pickpocketing. Pedestrians have to be walking out in the street, causing cars to slow down, so we have traffic pile-up in the town centre,” he added.