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Darrell Bradley - Belize City Mayor
"We are planning on encouraging all of them to move into the memorial park, this is of course a very contentious thing because everybody wants to be in front of the gate where the action is. So that what we have done is, we are working with BTB to work with the cruise ships to have the vendors alike, behind the memorial park. The cruise passengers alike behind the park and they would then walk through the park and that will give the vendors that degree of comfort to know that they will be where the action is, where the passengers are."

"It has been something that has been met with some resistance because clearly people want their organisational development, they want the spending in terms of infrastructure but of course when you speak about fees and trade license, nobody likes that. So the idea is that there has to be the incorporation of fees because the maintenance of this area has to come with some budgetary support and that must only be paid for by people who use the space."

"This is something that has been talked about for at least 2 years, so this is nothing new. We have had a series of discussions, but of course there is resistance to the idea of introducing any kind of fee. The reality though is that these people are vendors within Belize City, they benefit from using this community but everything that we have been doing right now is a series of consultation. We have put a date in terms of implementation. We are talking about this for sometime but essentially the reality is that if you are a vendor within Belize City, you should be paying trade license. The consultation yesterday was very healthy. Some people had strong reactions to the proposal that was put forward. All of that was noted but essentially the bottom line is that a significant amount of investment has been put in this area in terms of time and money and we have to have a serious conversation with the vendors within the space in relation with having them pay a nominal amount so that we can continue the maintenance of this space. We are trying to get the vendors to be co-opted into accepting the table of fees. if it is something that they are saying that this is very high and these kinds of circumstances, then we could look at the phase-in in proposal."

Jules Vasquez, 7News
"You give a very benign interpretation, millions of dollars invested in the park. You need to regularize the situation in front of the terminals, suppose you take another interpretation - You went to build a white elephant at the park yet no one can use it except for may be 1 or 2 users, in terms of everyday rentals and now you all are trying to pursuit, Carnival Corporation which is trying to keep all the money for itself, you all are workng in concert with them to dislocated those who are fighting for crumbs outside the village and say when you go there you will fight for nothing, because we need to populate this white elephant that we are stuck with. Respond to that interpretation."

Darrell Bradley - Belize City Mayor
"From the very inception I could have told you that you would have had a problem because the simply reality is, if I’m a business person I want to be where the action is, if the tourist are coming through memorial park that’s where I want to be, if the tourist are only going from the gate to the bus, that’s where I want to be and I will encourage the business vendors, the small business vendors to hold the various regulatory authorities to this but BTB and the City Council and I'm the mayor do not move unless you are assured that the buses will relocated and the tourists will go through the park. The reason why that park is a white elephant is a simple reason, if you make the buses park in the area because anyone will drive out there, you see the area that’s designated for the buses to park, the park was actually built with that as part of a whole core concept . The buses park in that designated area and the people walk through the park to the zone, if that happens, if that vision of the initial plan happens then the people have no fear because hundreds of tourists will be walking right pass your booth."

As the mayor indicated, the council is open to adjusting the rental fees.