Hawkers petition public for support

Monti hawkers were yesterday asking people entering Valletta to sign a petition urging the government not to move the open market from its former spot in Merchants Street.

About 5,000 signatures - including that of Opposition Leader Alfred Sant - had been collected up to midday, Union Haddiema Maghqudin's section secretary Nicholas Baldacchino said.

Wearing T-shirts with the words Give Us Back Our Jobs and Monti Hawkers United, UHM, the hawkers - now in the 10th day of their protest - spent a second night camped in Freedom Square, to where they moved on Monday evening after a week of refusing to set up their stalls at St James Ditch, just outside the capital. Talks with the government on the way forward have yielded no results.

The hawkers have refused to set up their stalls in St James Ditch for a few weeks while road works are underway in Merchants Street as part of a pedestrianisation project.

They are also against the government's plans to move their permanent spots to the next block down Merchants Street from their established position.

Talks with the authorities came to a standstill on Tuesday night following a meeting with Investments Minister Austin Gatt during which the government ruled out further discussions on the new site for the market.

Mr Baldacchino told The Times hawkers were prepared to organise their stalls and to give them a uniform appearance in order to embellish the market.

He said the hawkers were prepared to give up the area where they were previously posted, so long as an acceptable alternative was found. The government's proposal would put the hawkers in a "cage" from where they could not operate.

Among the hawkers' proposals is a permanent move to Ordnance Street, just off Freedom Square. Asked how this would affect traffic going down Old Bakery Street, Mr Baldacchino said it would then be up to the government to make alternative traffic arrangements, although he later added that the market should not disrupt that part of Valletta because the 115 stalls could fit between Old Bakery Street and Freedom Square.

He said the government had found this solution unacceptable as the Park and Ride shuttle service passed through Ordnance Street. An alternative route could be found, he insisted.

Dr Sant said that if elected to government his party would offer hawkers their original site in Merchants Street, or any other solution which was suitable to them and to Valletta, a statement which was greeted with shouts of "Fredu, Fredu" by the hawkers.

Asked about this solution, he said the hawkers themselves had mentioned Ordnance Street as a possible site for their permanent relocation.

He said solutions needed to be looked into that required both the hawkers and the government to be flexible. It was possible to find a way to guarantee a suitable livelihood for the hawkers and their families while keeping in mind the commercial needs of other businesses and those of residents.

Dr Sant said he decided to speak to the hawkers yesterday because the government's "propaganda" was not allowing their version to come across.

He said the government was trying to give the impression that these were "intransigent" people who were not prepared to accept solutions.

The Investments Ministry said that through his promise to give the original site back to the hawkers, Dr Sant was going against the wishes of the Republic Street Business Community Association, the Valletta Alive Foundation, the Merchants Street Business Community Association and the Chamber for Small and Medium Enterprises - GRTU, which all agreed that the market should move further down from its former spot in Merchants Street.

The Valletta local council, the Valletta Football Club, the St John's Co-Cathedral Foundation, the Chamber of Commerce and Enterprise, Fondazzjoni Wirt Artna and the Malta Environment and Planning Authority also agreed that the market should move from its previous spot.

The ministry said that, ironically, the MLP's Valletta committee had voiced its agreement with moving the open-air market during a consultation meeting held prior to the publication of the strategy for Valletta.

The Investment Ministry also released a letter sent by Investments Minister Austin Gatt to UHM secretary general Gejtu Vella in which Dr Gatt urged a speedy resolution on this dispute in the interest of all concerned.