KSAMC Removes Unapproved Billboard Blocking Jamaica Society for the Blind Entrance

The Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation is pressing harder against advertisers who breach outdoor advertising rules, taking down signs that were never approved or paid for across the corporate area.

KSAMC Chief Executive Officer Robert Hill has flagged an unlawful billboard put up at the gateway to the Jamaica Society for the Blind, saying the structure threatens both access for persons with disabilities and public safety.

He said, "This is an offense. This is an affront to the disabled community and we as a responsible municipal organization cannot allow this to be to stay here. So, we're taking action today to remove this structure from the public right of way."

Hill noted that officers contacted the advertiser and directed that the board come down, but that order was disregarded. The corporation then moved to dismantle it itself.

"We were appalled that having called the advertiser instructed him to remove it, he refused to do so. So, we're paying in the compliment of doing that today and ensuring that no structure that impedes the movement particularly of our disabled community is placed as an impediment to obstruct them from the free movement along the publicair."

Where efforts to regularise installations and collect outstanding fees have repeatedly failed, Hill said the corporation will proceed with enforcement against operators who still will not comply.

"Where we are removing some of the signs from non-compliant clients, we would have written to, we would have called, we would have followed up, and some have remained a non-compliant and actually rigid in their stance for not paying. So, we are carrying through our normal legal activities by removing sandwich which has not been paid for and not been regularized."