The Tribune

By DENISE MAYCOCK

Tribune Freeport Reporter

dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

KWASI Thompson, Member of Parliament for East Grand Bahama, said the straw vendors at Port Lucaya Marketplace are facing a “desperate situation,” and that a vendor had passionately advocated for better conditions right up until her death last week.

Vendor Antoinette Smith tragically passed away just days after raising urgent concerns about the ongoing difficulties faced at the straw market.

While speaking in the House of Assembly, Mr Thompson said the opposition had visited the vendors, including Ms Smith, who was a longtime vendor at the marketplace. 

Ms Smith died last Friday. She was the first vice president of the Free National Movement Grand Bahama Women’s Association.

Mr Thompson indicated that Ms Smith fought for the well-being of all vendors there.

Addressing the matter of the straw market in Grand Bahama, Fred Mitchell, Minister of Foreign Affairs, also expressed concern and shock at the challenging situation facing the vendors and the deteriorating conditions at the marketplace.

“The government is fully aware of the issues related to the straw market in Grand Bahama,” he said. “I had talks over the Christmas holiday of the same nature.”

He said one of the main complaints was the beach access and the location where buses drop off passengers and whether adjustments could be made to improve the flow of people entering the area.

“I passed on those complaints, and I am sure that the Minister of Tourism and the appropriate officials are looking into it. Ginger Moxey’s office is in touch with them,” he added.

Mr Mitchell said when he visited the Straw Market, he was concerned about the complaint about the “aggressive behaviour” of those who own and operate Port Lucaya.

“I was shocked at the condition of the place. It’s gotten these lines saying ‘do not cross’ because the railings are about to fall into the ocean,” he said.

Mr Mitchell explained that when he was the Immigration Minister, the current owners of the Port Lucaya Marketplace made promises to them of major investments, claiming it would be “the next big thing.”

He stressed that the owners have not followed through on those commitments.

“There is no evidence that they carried out their obligations and that is the problem. There is no investment in the place and they have become rent collectors, that’s what the straw vendors said. There is no maintenance in the place and it has just become an extracting of profits, and it comes back to those who run the city and what their responsibility is to ensure those things are corrected,” he said.