![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/vendors.jpg\" "\\"vendors\\"")
Nassau, The Bahamas — Agriculture and Marine Resources and Local Government Minister V. Alfred Gray urged vendors operating at Potter\u2019s Cay and Arawak Cay to pay their leases or face eviction.<\/p>\nNassau, The Bahamas — Agriculture and Marine Resources and Local Government Minister V. Alfred Gray urged vendors operating at Potter\u2019s Cay and Arawak Cay to pay their leases or face eviction.<\/p>\n
During a meeting with vendors on Monday, Mr Gray was also critical of the \u201cdilapidated\u201d conditions of stalls, especially at Potter\u2019s Cay.<\/p>\n
He told vendors that if they were not prepared to properly conduct business, the opportunity will be given to others.<\/p>\n
\u201cGenerally speaking, most of you are in arrears in the amount of thousands of dollars in lease payment,\u201d Mr Gray told them.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf your leases are not covered and you are not making any arrangement to fix it, we are going to close you down.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery vendor needs to accept and understand that you have to pay a fee for where you are and what you do,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Vendors\u2019 refusal to pay their leases, he said, was like stealing from the Government.<\/p>\n
Mr. Gray warned that under his administration, it will no longer be business as usual.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you ain\u2019t straight, get straight\u2026or we will simply close you down,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Arrangements can be made for vendors to pay off their arrears while keeping their licence current, he said.<\/p>\n
The demand for Arawak Cay businesses, he said, \u201cIs great. If you have one I just beg you to keep your licence current.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Minister said he was not satisfied with the cleanliness of the environment where vendors do business, especially at Potter\u2019s Cay.<\/p>\n
He described certain areas of the Potter\u2019s Cay environment as being \u201cnasty\u201d and criticised vendors for dumping conch shells into the sea when other arrangements are made for their disposal.<\/p>\n
He stressed that vendors are responsible for keeping their stalls and the surrounding areas clean.<\/p>\n
He said the Government must take some responsibility for the predicament for not enforcing the rules.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome of us in Government must take some blame for allowing you to do that,\u201d said Minister Gray. \u201cBut we have to fix it.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said that within a month, dilapidated and unoccupied stalls will be demolished.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost of those stalls (at Potter\u2019s Cay) seem to be in a state where they should be torn down,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He suggested that the food section of Potter\u2019s Cay be closed for three weeks so the area can be sanitised.<\/p>\n
By Gladstone Thurston
\nBahamas Information Services<\/p>\n
Caption: Agriculture, Marine Resources and Local Government Minister V. Alfred Gray engages a vendor during Monday\u2019s meeting. (BIS Photo\/Raymond Bethel)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Agriculture and Marine Resources and Local Government Minister V. Alfred Gray urged vendors operating at Potter\u2019s Cay and Arawak Cay to pay their leases or face eviction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10223285771444175_51037792744":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[40,49,410],"class_list":["post-24237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business","tag-government","tag-law","tag-vendors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24237\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}