By John Myers, Jr. Staff ReporterA KINGSTON and St. Andrew Corporation (KSAC) demolition team took down over 400 illegal billboards along the Hagley Park Road, St. Andrew, yesterday as part of renewed efforts to recover millions of dollars lost from the posting of unauthorised advertising signs.
The operation, led by Mayor of Kingston Desmond McKenzie and Town Clerk Errol Greene, started about 11:00 a.m. and saw the team crashing illegal signs from the Hagley Park Plaza and continued along the roadway much to the chagrin and displeasure of some business owners who could do little but watch. Police accompanied the demolition crew.
Mr. Greene said the operation proceeded as planned.
"It went very well; a number of persons approached us to seek compliance," he said. Some owners had actually taken down their signs having got advance notice of the removals. "Those signs that were encroaching on the sidewalks were the ones we removed," he said.
Mayor McKenzie, in a statement issued on Wednesday, said since the operation started in mid-2003 there "has been a significant jump in the revenues collected by the Corporation from legally operated signs."
He added that there were indications that the KSAC could realise much more revenue than anticipated from the regularisation of billboards across the Corporate Area.
The Mayor warned delinquent owners of signs that "it would be in their best interest to seek to regularise the situation as quickly as possible, as no sign which is in breach of KSAC regulations would be spared."
He said these owners only need to visit the City Engineering Department of the KSAC, fill out the application form and pay the required fee. "It is a very simple process which does not take a very long time," he said.
