Bernard Responds to Criticism on No Vending Carnival Rule

On Tuesday, the Belize City Council issued a release notifying the public that vending along the carnival route is strictly prohibited on carnival day. Shortly following the announcement, public outcry flooded social media. In response, Citco’s Communications Manager, Michelle Smith told News Five that vending is allowed on reserved spaces and private property. Today, we spoke with Mayor Bernard Wagner for further clarification.

 

Bernard Wagner, Mayor, Belize City

“Vending is allowed. There is no issue there. No vending will be on the street where the carnival is taking place, but we have areas off the street, off street, that vendors will be allowed to work, to sell. I would suggest that they contact our PR department in that respect. But we have a lot of reserve areas in the city. That stretch and vending will be allowed on the areas that are not on the exact street that the carnival. Take for instance, Princess Margaret Drive, you’ll have one side of the street being utilized by the carnival, so the other side of the street will be allowed for vending. There’s no issue there. I think it was just communication, and if you have an issue and you don’t understand our communication, You call the city council and get the pertinent information. We have to get out of this, get pon social media and start to rant and rave. And there are ways how you go about discussing these issues and we never said that there would be no vending. We said that on the route, on the exact street that the carnival is is in held, you can’t vend.”

 

Reporter

“Alright, just to clear up on this concept, can you tell us a little bit about how you guys came to this decision? “

 

Bernard Wagner

“No, It’s a whole sort of it’s a lot of collaboration. The Carnival Association does have some restrictions in terms of BTL parking, we have certain covenants with those vendors in that area. And so we don’t want to jeopardize their ability to earn income in the park era. So we have said that era along the Digi park is a no vending era. So that allows those vendors in the park to be able to earn some measure of income for that day.”