Kingston mayor says KSAMC lacks road money as Port Maria skip row simmers and tourism law faces rewrite

Kingston Mayor Andrew Swaby says the Kingston and St. Andrew Municipal Corporation is still short of money and people to tackle worsening parish roads across the corporate area, even as residents and motorists keep raising alarms about potholes and slow repairs.

At the monthly council meeting on Tuesday, Swaby said roughly seven in ten streets in Kingston and St. Andrew sit with the municipal body, while the National Works Agency handles the rest. He argued that long-running shortfalls in central support mean local government lacks the budget to look after its share of the network the way the public expects.

Swaby said the corporation draws about eighty-five million dollars a month on average from the parochial revenue fund for road work, a sum he called far too small for the mileage under its care and the rising repair backlog. That same pool, he added, also pays for drains, bushing, and seasonal employment schemes such as the December employment generation programme, which tightens the squeeze on road spending.

He said the roads and works unit is below its needed engineering strength because technical posts are hard to fill and the corporation cannot freely grow payroll to match demand. Swaby questioned whether a planned single road authority would fix the underlying cash shortage, warning that without a sharp lift in investment and backup for councils, street conditions could keep sliding. He said councils have pressed for higher allocations over time, including recent remarks from Councillor John Myers on the same theme.

In Port Maria, people living near a central skip say mixed commercial refuse is piling up, drawing vermin and strays and leaving foul waste on the street. They blame nearby supermarkets for poor separation and dumping, say the bin blocks the road when collection runs late, and want the skip shifted or the site cleaned on a tighter schedule. They said they would press their representative and state agencies for faster action.

Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett said the government intends to scrap and replace the Tourism Act as part of its Tourism 3.0 agenda, including a fresh tourism authority law after review and consultation. Speaking at a Tourism Enhancement Fund speed-networking session last week, he said Jamaica has not built enough local supply to match tourism’s growth, so the country still imports more than two-thirds of goods and services the sector uses, a gap the strategy should narrow.

Bartlett said he will give more detail in his budget presentation and is talking with other ministries because the plan spans the whole economy. He framed the push under a “local first” line, saying tourism should chiefly benefit Jamaicans before overseas visitors, while stakeholders have long asked for stronger backing for smaller operators. He acknowledged global strains and the October 2025 hit from Hurricane Melissa but said the ministry is working toward a sturdier legal framework for the industry’s next phase.