HANOVER, Jamaica - The Hanover Municipal Corporation (HMC) is welcoming a spike in the number of applications for entertainment and vending permits over recent months.

Acting Chief Executive Officer of the Corporation, Romeo Daley, said the uptick in application numbers is being viewed as an indicator of the return to normal social and economic activities in the parish since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020.

“We can safely say that since the lifting of the COVID-19 measures, we have seen an increase in the applications we have received at the corporation,” Daley said.

“Since November, December last year… we have seen that activities have picked up. So, we know that things are almost back on track in terms of entertainment events,” he added, noting that the increase in applications for permits will provide a boost to the corporation’s revenue.

Daley made an appeal for persons vending on the streets to regularise their trade by applying for the relevant permit to operate in the public markets.

The HMC recorded a total of 52 applications for amusement and vending licences in February for events such as car shows, dance parties, cook outs, family fun days, stage shows, birthday parties, fish fries, among others.

Of the 52 applications, seven vending licences were for operating in the Cleveland Stanhope Market in Lucea and the Hopewell Market.

At the recent monthly meeting of the corporation, Chairman and Mayor of Lucea, Councillor Sheridan Samuels, said the HMC would be intensifying its efforts to collect outstanding fees from business operators for licences, billboards and signs as well as from public transport operators for use of the Lucea Transport Centre, and other motorists for parking.