Food vendor near AIA hounded to move for years

The efforts to remove Janella Charles, of Argyle, from her vending spot at the roadside across from the entrance to Argyle International Airport (AIA) date back to before 2022, but she says she is still trying to understand why.

In October 2022, Charles approached iWitness News as she faced yet another attempt to move her from the area, where she has been vending for over 10 years — even before AIA opened in February 2017.

Charles sells food in the area on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays.

She told iWitness News on Sunday that the offer by Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves to pay for the first EC$500 in drinks ordered after the last attempt to uproot her on Friday has not had any impact on her business.

Charles said that in the last five years or so, the authorities have shifted the boundary in the area to the point that she almost has nowhere to vend in the area.

She said she was aware that some people had said that the authorities wanted her to move because her business was affecting sales at AIA.

“People are suggesting that, but honestly, I can’t say is that,” Charles told iWitness News.

“But if I am working down there and I don’t want to buy anything down there and somebody selling up here what I am selling, I would walk and come and get what I want,” the vendor further said.

“I can’t stop people from come and buy, I can’t tell them what to go and buy. People saying it, but I don’t know.”

On Friday, the Land and Survey Department turned up at the spot, yet again, this time cutting down two poles that Charles and her boyfriend had set up as part of their food vending operation.

Charles said that a private citizen, who she thinks was a real estate agent, used to complain that she was selling on private land.

She said that physical planning authorities also “used to always come with papers and give us one day, two days to remove from off of there but we never really moved”.

The vendor said the situation continued “until we even went in to go to the bigger head in the planning area”.

She said the planning authorities had said that the private citizen had been complaining about the vendors’ using the land.

“I don’t know who the owner is. But the owner for the land is not living In St Vincent. So, the lands already cut up and sell,” Charles said.

She said the physical planning workers visited and conducted boundary measurements.

“…the two poles that I have planted there was into the boundary – the back of the boundary, the back of the pole.”

Charles told iWitness News that when Kingstown Cooperative Credit Union constructed the bus shed in the area in April 2023, the financial institution met with the vendors and advised them to use tents and not erect any permanent structure.

“… because if we do that, we always will get in problem,” Charles recalled. “They provided us a tent. So, we using the tent all along…”

Charles said that to “save the confusion” they would take down the tarpaulin.

“Sometimes, we take down the structure. Sometimes, if I feeling too tired, we leave it up, but we take off the paulin,” she said, referring to the tent structure.

She said that the authorities did not come by “for good while; they never really come back and give us harassment from we start using the tent and stuff like that”.

She, however, said that on April 7, her boyfriend was sitting in the area and she was on her way to town when her boyfriend called her, indicating that a man had just “brought a notice for us to move on the ninth of this month, which was Wednesday gone”.

She said that on Wednesday, the authorities called her boyfriend, who told them that they had already set up to sell.

“So, then they tell him, ‘OK. We’re giving you until this week coming to remove everything.”

Charles said that on Thursday, the authorities called and said they were coming on Friday to cut down the poles and remove the structure for the tent.

She said her boyfriend told the man who brought the notice that they had given until the following week, therefore, he would sell food on Friday.

Charles said she called Andrew John, the main opposition New Democratic Party’s candidate for South Windward, where Argyle is located.

She said John advised her to go and sell her food as usual.

Charles said that on Friday, she was preparing her food when Land and Survey called saying they were calling to cut down the poles and remove the structure.

She said a neighbour called and said that the authorities were already there with two police officers.

“When I went down there, I didn’t tell them anything. My boyfriend was there with them when they started to measure up and put down boundary stakes and stuff like that and say we have to move from there.”

Charles said that she later told one of the men that she had a smaller tent and would go to the area where the benches were because she had already prepared the food to sell.

“He told me I could just use the tent because the tent could easily just go up and come down, and sell your food.”

Charles said:

“I don’t see nothing wrong with selling my food there. It’s not like I’m walking with everything. I don’t walk with nothing down there.”

She emphasised that she has been selling in the area for over 10 years and pays to have the grass cut every month.

“Even though Airport come up and cut the other side, they are not cutting on that side,” she said, adding that she pays EC$50 to cut the area every month.

Shifting boundaries

Charles said she does not understand why she is being asked to move from the area.

“It’s kind of corrupt. I don’t even understand myself,” she said, adding that it appears that the authorities were saying that the land on which she was selling belongs to the person who owns the lands nearby.

She, however, said the area where she is selling is very close to the bus stop.

“You could say I am right on the bus stop just joined together. I am right at the back of the bus stop.

“So, when they measure it up this Friday, they put the stake right to the back of the bus stop. So, if I go there to sell, I will be on the property.”

Charles said that was probably the fourth time that the land was being surveyed amidst the efforts to move her from the area.

“And this time they come back, they said they have to carry it out wider. … It (the boundary) keeps moving. Earlier up when they came, it was more down. They came back again, and they did it again, it gone up. … Now they come, they say it has to open a little wider. So, I don’t know…”

Food business sustains vendor’s household

Charles told iWitness News that the money from the food business sustains her family, including her two children who are in secondary school and Community College.

“It is very important, because this is where I send my kids to school from, and this is where I pay my bills from,” Charles told iWitness News.

“How they will get to school? It’s not like even though I stop operating at the same time, I would get a job. So, therefore, it’s me they going to look to get a dollar to go to school. How would they get it if I am not working?”

PM offers to pay for $500 in drinks

In a Facebook post on Saturday, Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves said he had spoken to Charles.

“… and she will be selling at her usual spot at AIA gap today

“I will always defend my comrades! The 1st $500 drinks are on me!” the prime minister further stated.

Charles, however, had no comment on the prime minister’s post.

“I didn’t really say nothing about it. I didn’t reply anything about reply,” Charles told iWitness News, adding that she had no comment on the PM’s post.

“Business was just normal. Normal business… People would call and talk about it, but then I would tell them, I don’t know — I am unaware of it. I don’t know nothing about it.”

Charles said she “wouldn’t say no” that the prime minister contacted her.

“When you put things out there, people seem to turn it different,” she told iWitness News.

She also declined to say whether she had received the $500 for drinks that the prime minister had said he would pay for.

“I would let that one pass,” Charles told iWitness News.

She, however, maintained that she was not sure why she was being asked to move.

“Honestly, I am not too sure. But all I know they’re saying — people assuming it’s the airport and as I told you about the [real estate agent] and stuff like that.”

She said the letter she was given by Lands and Surveys was “just a piece of letter, a receipt paper stating that we have to move off the land [by] the ninth of this month.

“Honestly, I didn’t even open to see. It’s not a long sheet, as I just told you. It’s just a short piece, like a receipt. I just open it, see the name, see the date and that’s it, and just put it in my bag and go.   I never opened it back again.”

She said she had not seen the real estate agent for a while and did not know how to interpret his absence.

“Could be a year now since I have seen him come back and stuff like that,” Charles told iWitness News, adding that she did not know how to interpret his absence.