MPs promised to tackle the increased number of illegal businesses, including pop-up automotive-repair garages and mobile car washes, with Premier André Ebanks suggesting a taskforce “with teeth” to address the problem.
The issue was raised during the recent Finance Committee meeting by MP for George Town West, Pearlina McGaw-Lumsden, who said that there has been a “significant increase” in the number of pop-up garages in residential communities, often without planning approval.
Safety concerns
“What it’s doing is creating a nuisance in the community and it’s often a safety concern,” she said, asking the premier if he was considering any policy changes to strengthen enforcement powers to address the issue.
In response, Ebanks said that the problem wasn’t limited to garages, but that multiple mobile businesses had been popping up in many different neighbourhoods.
“What we’re having to do is to try to come to grips with enforcement around this new mode of doing business and pop-up garages to have greater enforcement tools,” he said, adding that it could take a multi-agency approach so that the police and the Department of Commerce & Investment were able to share information.
Deputy Opposition Leader Kenneth Bryan said that he was concerned about the growing number of mobile car washes on island, saying that customers couldn’t tell if they were licensed or not and that many mobile car washes seemed to remain in one place.
“I think people are circumventing what a mobile car wash was intended for,” he said, “and the people who are suffering are those who put in the major investment in paying higher licensing fees and government taxes to have a stationary one and it’s practically undermining much of the car wash industry.”
Anti-social behaviour
Bryan added that there was also a need for the Department of Commerce & Investment to tackle anti-social actions caused by businesses that might be licensed, but which played loud music or caused roads to be blocked by excessive parking.
“Ultimately, we have to do a better job of it, because when we talk about the effects on quality of life for people, it’s these small infractions which are not traditionally a Caymanian way of life,” Bryan said. “We would not dare disturb our neighbour and do it with such disregard and if we do not take a more forceful or proactive approach, the broken window syndrome, eventually you’ll see a derelict building.”
In response, Ebanks said that this was why the multi-agency approach was needed, to check that all requirements were being met before business licenses were approved.
“People might have to wait a little bit longer for the licence but at least we know the product is more solid,’ he said.
Ebanks also raised the possibility of having a moratorium on certain businesses, saying MPs would be “stunned” if they saw the list of mobile vendors, saying most people could name 10, but the list actually ran into the hundreds. “Who are all these people? What are they doing? Do we have a track of all this?” he asked, adding, “Is the 60:40 rule in this country actually working? It’s the opposite. Do we need a whole other framework?”
Illegal repair shops
George Town East MP Roy McTaggart said that the problem was “far bigger and far wider than I think we have ever appreciated,” saying he just recently had to report an illegal car repair shop that was subsequently shut down and another one was currently being investigated.
Roy Tatum, MP for Red Bay, said that even as the debate was taking place, constituents were contacting him about illegal operations including commercial fishing in residential areas.
Ebanks said that, judging by the comments he was hearing, “[time for] reform in this area is ripe. And I don’t want to throw the civil service completely under the bus and say that they’re clueless and they’re not all working together. But I do think we need a much more formalised multi-agency approach that has teeth.”
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