Sunday Monti hawkers expect to be treated in the same way as their colleagues who mount their stalls daily and move to a more prominent location.
The Sunday hawkers intend starting talks with the Government to try and move back to St James’s Ditch, close to the new bus terminus, from their present location at the park-and-ride facility in Blata l-Bajda.
The idea of relocation emerged before the Government acceded to a request by the daily Monti hawkers to move to Ordnance Street, close to the city entrance, from their present location at the bottom of Merchants Street, Valletta, according to Mark Zammit, secretary of the Monti Hawkers’ Association.
Mr Zammit said Sunday stall owners expected to be treated in the same way as daily hawkers, adding that, since the previous Administration decided to give the space they used to occupy at St James’s Ditch to Arriva and move them to Blata l-Bajda, their sales had gone down drastically.
“There is absolutely no comparison,” he said.
“The situation was so bad that the original 200 stalls dwindled because it doesn’t pay to set up the stall and sell nothing.”
“We want to discuss relocating back to a spot round the corner from where we were originally (adjacent to Ġlormu Cassar Avenue) and also other issues such as having a proper, encompassing set of regulations covering Monti hawkers,” he said.
He said the Blata l-Bajda area was done up in terms of security when they were moved there a couple of years ago but people were simply not flocking to the market as they did when it was more accessible.
Moreover, using the park-and-ride facility could cost patrons €4, an added hurdle to the location.
“We will invite the minister to come and see for himself. Although it is spacious, we are cut off and people just don’t come there,” he said.
He said that even businesses in Valletta were suffering because the market moved away from the capital city.
Mr Zammit said the association was prepared to discuss the standardisation of market stalls, although he disagreed with a one-size-fits-all approach.