TROPICAL STORM EMILY was not the only one brewing yesterday.

Not one stall remained in the car park behind the Cheapside Market after a midnight clean-up operation by the Sanitation Service Authority (SSA).

And president of the Barbados Association of Retailers, Vendors and Entrepreneurs (BARVEN), Alister Alexander, in addition to the about 200 vendors who operated there, wants to know who commissioned the clean-up and why.

Alexander told the DAILY NATION he received a call from one of his members on Tuesday night informing him of the demolition of the stalls.

"When I arrived after midnight, the SSA and police were down there. I informed the police who I was, but I could get no information from them," he said, adding that the operation was completed around 4:30 a.m.

Alexander said he watched until the last stall was destroyed and hauled onto a truck.

The action came as a shock to the president who said he did not know where he or his members would operate from now on.

A new outdoor market is being prepared near the Flour Mill on Spring Garden, St Michael, to relocate some of the vendors but it is not completed as yet.

"We expected to be in the car park until the new site was completed. What we find disturbing is that no one informed us of this move.

"We were not asked to remove our property and our property was callously destroyed by what we believe to be some uncaring technocrat in Government. We are not squatters; we are guests of the Government of Barbados," said an upset Alexander.

At no time, he explained, did the vendors who opted to ply their trade in the car park, instead of the newly-built market after it was opened, do so without the permission of Government.

The action came hours after BARVEN met with officials from the Barbados Tourism Investment Inc., promising them that they would clean up the area which was becoming an eyesore.

He said while he agreed the market looked "a little untidy", the reason it was in that state was because of the imminent move to the new outdoor facility.

"Vendors found it hard to spend money on a structure that they would not have long use of," Alexander noted.

He said they had already contacted Attorney-General Mia Mottley about the matter and expected to hear from her soon. The association has also planned a meeting today to discuss the matter with its members.