Local vendors are upset with the Mayor of Castries, Geraldine Lendor-Gabriel, whom they say has ignored them.
One of the vendors, Irene Wells, stated that she requested a meeting in the Castries Market, but the mayor declined.
Wells stated that she was surprised by her response, as this was the norm.
“We have a lot of complaints and we need to talk… about it. She wants us to come to her office… but from the time I’ve been at the market the mayor would come to us,” not the other way around, the vendor stated.
The other vendors- Joan Wells-Bailey, Julianna Joseph, Jeannette Duncan and Francillia Couloute stood beside her during the interview.
Like Wells, Joan Wells-Bailey complained about an unpleasant odour emanating from the market which she says is unbearable.
“Sometimes people could hardly walk through the market because of that. Some [of the vendors] are afraid to complain because … people are not pleased when you complain. It’s like [a] garbage place,” Wells-Bailey said.
“We have so many other issues… people [have]… stolen my stuff so many times and I’ve never been compensated … for all these losses I’ve encountered,” the vendor added.
According to Wells, “The mayor has to know how to talk to people we are… human beings.”
Jeannette Duncan, another vendor, concurred.
The vendors said that smoking is also an issue.
Lendor-Gabriel, however, is pushing back against the claims.
She said she went to the market yesterday to speak to some of the vendors so she could provide them with the help that they needed.
She also showed us a WhatsApp conversation that supported her remarks, however, declined to speak on record.