PHILIPSBURG:---The St. Maarten Carnival Development Foundation (SCDF) will seek a meeting with the Ministries of TEATT and VROMI following the Carnival season to discuss what it calls the haphazard erection of tents and other structures along Walter Nisbeth Road during the Carnival season.
Calling it “the mess along Pondfill”, the foundation lamented that government (VROMI) identifies the spots and TEATT subsequently grants the licenses without any sort of regulations attached regarding how and what should be built or placed on the spots.
The results, the foundation said, “is an ugly looking string of structures that does not enhance the tourism or Carnival product. Instead, anything that happens out there, is blamed on the Carnival foundation. We had visitors who thought that was Carnival Village,” the foundation said.
The SCDF pointed out that what started as a handful of vendors is now growing every year without regulation or supervision. “We have seen people throwing used cooking oil on the grass, garbage is left lying around, we have gotten blamed for noise pollution coming from the structures among other things,” the foundation said.
“If government is going to grant licenses for road side vending during Carnival, with the presence of Carnival Village, then we want to have a say in how many and provide suggestions on how they should be constructed that is actually appealing. How many is important because Carnival is a government subsidized event and Carnival Village must be protected. It is because of Carnival that they are out there, so we should have a say as to what happens during the season,” the SCDF said.
