Vendors at Nabouwalu are free to sell their produce to passengers who travel via Patterson Brothers Shipping, says company manager David Patterson.

He was responding to comments by Nabouwalu Advisory Councillor, Sujata Singh, who voiced concerns that vendors at Nabouwalu were unable to sell their produce to passengers travelling via Patterson Brothers Shipping.

Mrs Singh said many market vendors returned home with their produce because passengers did not get off the buses and buy from them.

“This is an ongoing concern since the road upgrade happened last year,” Mrs Singh said.

“I operate a small restaurant near the jetty and my business has been going down because I don’t have customers.”

To that Mr Patterson said: “We are not stopping market vendors from selling their produce while the bus waits to get into the boat. Market vendors can feel free to sell.

“However, we cannot take the risk of getting our passengers on board late.”

Mr Singh hopes the shipping company could change its bus schedules to allow the passengers to shop while waiting. However, Mr Patterson said they could not do that.

“We have made it very convenient for passengers to board the bus comfortably in the morning,” Mr Patterson said.

But Mr Singh said the problem was that the boat arrived early at Nabouwalu jetty, but the buses arrived late.

“When the bus arrives here at Nabouwalu it goes directly into the boat without giving the passengers a chance to shop around,” he said.

In response Mr Patterson said: “The passengers do not come out of the bus at Nabowalu jetty because of safety measures. The passengers from the bus need to get into the boat without wasting anytime. There are many other trucks waiting in the line.”

Nabouwalu will soon become a town, but Mr Singh believes people may lose interest in investing if the situation continues.

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