The Valletta hawkers that operate the open-air market are not upset that they have not yet been asked to relocate their stalls to an area further down Merchants Street, even if the date set by the government for this relocation has expired by almost three weeks.
After almost two weeks of noisy protests last month, the hawkers got what they wanted and were allowed to temporarily relocate their stalls to Freedom Square while the Merchants Street paving project was under way.
An agreement between the government and Union Haddiema Maghqudin (UHM), the union representing the hawkers, had finally been reached on 18 May.
The government had promised that as from 8 June, the market will be located on the stretch of Merchants Street between Old Theatre Street and Archbishop Street, as well as part of Old Theatre Street where a few hawkers already used to put up their stalls.
The new location includes the area just outside the historic market (Is-Suq tal-Belt), which has being cleared of its trees and levelled out to accommodate the hawkers’ stalls.
The Investment, Industry and Information Technology Ministry had said in a statement that by the time of the move, the new area was expected to be neatly surfaced and safe to work on. The plan was to have the area paved at a later stage, when the open-air market would again have to be relocated to Freedom Square for “a few days”.
The 7 June deadline has come and gone and the Chamber of Small and Medium Enterprises (GRTU) yesterday again accused the government of not being bothered to keep commitments regarding the relocation of the open-air market.
According to the Investment, Industry and Information Technology Ministry, the hawkers could have been asked to relocate to the new area even before 7 June, because the area outside the historic market was surfaced with concrete before expected.
However, it was decided to allow the work to progress further and the site to be made more accessible, before the open-air market was relocated, the ministry said in a statement.
In fact, the work on the stretch of Merchants Street that links Old Theatre Street to St John Street is about to be completed and a spokesperson from the ministry told this newspaper that the relocation of the market is now “imminent”.
In a statement issued prior to the ministry’s, the GRTU said it had the personal assurance of Resources and Infrastructure Minister Ninu Zammit, Roads and Urban Development Minister Jesmond Mugliett and that of Investment, Industry and IT Minister Austin Gatt, that the open-air market, would be moved to its new site by 8 June.
The date had come and gone and in spite of the assurances of three important ministers, the deadline was not met, the GRTU complained, in its second statement regarding the matter issued within a week.
GRTU said the open-air market in Freedom Square has messed up the capital’s business network and the government is obliged to solve this problem, which it caused in the first place. GRTU is holding the government responsible for damages.
Meanwhile, the Investment, Industry and IT Ministry said yesterday, that following a request from UHM, it is extending its offer to Valletta hawkers who would like to renounce their trade licence until 28 June.
Until the beginning of June, the ministry had received six applications from hawkers who voluntarily renounced their licence, even though it had offered to buy back 12 licences for Lm10,000 each.