Cleaning the area outside the Fairchild Street Market is not the responsibility of the Sanitation?Service Authority (SSA).
SSA public relations officer Carl Padmore said last night its sole responsibility was to empty the bins in the area, while the market staff were to clean the premises.
Padmore was responding to an item in yesterday’s DAILY?NATION highlighting the filthy surroundings of the market which were littered with garbage, showed an unidentified man urinating on a wall, and quoted car washers as saying “the SSA could do better by sending people to clean the area outside the market on a regular basis”.
But Padmore pointed out that the SSA was contracted through its commercial department to empty full skips from some facilities, the Fairchild Street market being one of those where the service was provided.
Market staff’s job
“The skip that we have presently at the market is emptied approximately three times per week by the commercial department, and periodically we dispatch a skidster and an open truck to remove any spills. Our sole responsibility is to empty the bins while the market staffs’ responsibility is to clean the premises,” he noted.
He pointed out that there were three main problems the Fairchild Street Market was facing.
“The filthy conditions around the skip hinder the market staff from carrying out functions from time to time, including sightings of faeces, the indiscriminate dumping by all and sundry, and scavenging by vagrants. These are three of the main problems facing this area” he added.
Padmore said, however, that the SSA was ready to be part of any joint effort to tackle this worrisome problem but said he felt the need to clear the air.
“The reality is that Barbadians need to look after the market and see it as their own,” Padmore added. (CT)
