Officials to assess market

 By JAYNE SAFIHAO

JAPANESE officials will be in Madang tomorrow to inspect and assess when work should start on the town’s closed market.

Town manager Lau Sorum yesterday said the decision to turn Sir Donald Cleland Park into a temporary market in the last two months was made “in isolation” by the Mayor John Yama in an assembly meeting in December. Basing the market there breached environmentalhealth laws. The decision was rescinded on Monday.

Sorum said awareness had been carried out since last Friday with the help of police to notify the vendorsof the park’s closure as a temporary market.

“We are forced to make these decisions as commonconcerns raised by the likes of longtime resident and businessman Sir Peter Barter over health-related

issues such as of cholera, typhoid and dysentery through sitting in these very unhygienic conditions,” he said. The decision contravened the physical planningboard rules.