Oval promise

Vendors made full use of a meeting on the World Cup to vent anger about their treatment generally and to call for a better deal.

After more than two hours of talks at St Mary's Primary School in Bridgetown on Sunday, the estimated 60 vendors came away with assurances that the cup would offer more opportunities for selling inside the new-look Kensington Oval than the old cricketing arena, and that there would be fairness in the allocation of positions.

Against a backdrop of repeated applause, vendors' spokespersons Keith Corbin and Ireka Jalani raised concerns about the alleged disregard by the authorities of sellers' views on matters, including the construction of markets, a reported lack of state marketing of those venues, and a crackdown on vending in city areas.

Corbin wanted to know if the vending opportunities available at the ground would be set aside for "just a select few" or if vendors would get a chance to be involved. Chief operations officer with World Cup Barbados, Vancourt Rouse, said "a couple of dozen" opportunities for vending would be available inside Kensington, but distribution would be based on a tendering system. He urged vendors' groups, including the Barbados Association of Retailers, Vendors and Entrepreneurs, and the Kensington Vendors' Association, to get together to ensure their members got a good deal.

Manager of Legacy Barbados, David Reeves, told the meeting efforts were being made to ensure the tendering process was fair to vendors, to the point of making provision to help them fill out the relevant forms. He said vendors would have greater opportunities and fewer restrictions outside Kensington Oval, a venue where the ICC was involved in the rules. Planning for 60 days of activities surrounding the tournament offered "a tremendous amount of vending opportunities", he said.

The high level of security surrounding the events was also raised by Reeves, who said Barbados was talking to people who had gone to Germany for the football World Cup with a view to comparing developments there with the local plans. He said matches in Germany were played under the same security arrangement the Caribbean would have in place for next year, based on the much-talked-about "sunset legislation".

The meeting was called by Legacy Barbados to explain its mandate and get the views of vendors on a number of matters.