MARKET traders selling their produce on the pavement outside the Ochi Square market in Nicosia were fined yesterday in police raids launched as part of a new municipality drive.
Nicos Hadjinicolaou of Nicosia Municipality said the vendors had met with Mayor Michalakis Zampelas on July 5 to discuss the problem but that no solution was found. The Municipal Council then confirmed that they would go ahead with their decision and the measures to have the vendors and their stalls removed would be implemented on July 14, yesterday.
Each offending trader was fined £100 – £50 for selling produce without a licence and £50 for putting their stalls on the pavement, but the threat appeared to have had no effect since they all remained at the market yesterday and said that they intended to return next Wednesday as well.
Hadjinicolaou added that if they did not leave the pavement and continued selling their produce there, the situation would be dealt with within the provisions of the law.
Some of the vendors told the Cyprus Mail yesterday that they had been selling their produce on that exact pavement for the past seven to eight years. Since the problem began, some of them had accumulated up to £600 in fines.
One woman said: “I haven’t paid the fines because I don’t have the money to pay for them.”
The general consensus is that the mayor should find them a different location to place their stalls legally so that they can continue to make their living. Most of the vendors are pensioners whose income from their produce is their only means of living.
One man said: “We’re struggling to make a living here and they’re trying to take it from us. This problem started about six months ago. We’re trying to fight it because this is what we live off, this is our job, this is what we’ve been doing for years.
“There were rumours that they were going to move us into the car park. We even saw men measuring the area and counting how many vendors we are. They invited us to go to the municipality and while we were expecting them to allot our new positions, the Mayor suddenly told us we have to leave.”
