Last night, 7News told you about the dilemma facing the vendors and taxi drivers who operate around the Battlefield Park.
The Belize City Council has issued them with a notice that they must vacate the area by Friday, which is a great inconvenience to them because their customers look to them for service due to proximity.
We showed you one vendor who explained just how the obligation to move will affect her directly, and so today, we spoke to Kenny Morgan, City Halls PR Officer. He told us why it has become necessary.
Kenny Morgan - PR Officer, Belize City Council
"The vendors have been asked to vacate Battlefield Park but this is not something that just arose. They were informed, even the vendors who were originally at ground O and were relocated to Battlefield Park were informed at the time that it would only be a temporary measure because extensive renovation works were about to commence inside Battlefield Park. With the contracts now being signed for those works to commence we have had to asked the vendors to relocate until the works are finished. Currently we are looking to relocate them temporarily again to somewhere along Southern Foreshore. We are looking into it but I would like to remind you that it is not the councils' responsibility to find areas for the vendors. The vendors are to seek out these areas and then they come into the City Council to apply for the area and if the approval is given then they can conduct their businesses in those areas. We are going, I think, above and beyond the call of duty by trying to assist them in finding locations."
Daniel Ortiz
"But you do understand that there are some vendors who are there for a couple months who have gotten established because customers look to them for that regular service."
Kenny Morgan
"Again we cannot allow that to take away from if the impact that the eventual works will have not for just a few but for the entire City. Progress will bring a few problems and for the most part we are asking that citizens understand the objectives that we are working towards. Providing a Belize City that all of us will be proud to live in and be a part of and they can do their part by showing a little understanding that these inconveniences are only temporary and as soon as the works are finished we will do our best to try to get them back to normal"
Morgan reiterated that there will be inconveniences to citizens of the City for the next few months while the upgrading works are happening, and that the City Council is asking for patience until they are completed.
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