Zero Tolerance Indeed!

The Chairman of the Kingston and St Andrew Corporation, KSAC, Mayor Desmond McKenzie announced with great fanfare earlier this year a “zero-tolerance” approach to persons who chose to store their construction material and waste on the roadways and sidewalks of the Corporate Area. However, the usually proactive Mayor has been inexplicably silent on this issue, despite a plethora of complaints to the local authority (KSAC). Indeed the problem in the community of Seymour Lands has become so acute that the air quality has been estimated to have deteriorated by at least 40 percent in the vicinity of some of the projects, as no attempt is being made by control the dust nuisance by the multiple, active construction sites and in several cases construction material is stored in the roadway and on the sidewalks.

Indeed the sidewalks and roadways are being specifically used to store sewerage pipes, concrete blocks, marl, sand, gravel and all manner of construction waste material. The roads have been severely damaged in some instances but inaction by the local authority has been the strategy employed. Indeed, the worst example of this has been Argyle Road and Musgrave Avenue in Seymour Lands; however the frequent complaints by the citizenry are routinely ignored by the representatives of the local authority. Ironically the local authority remains part of the building approval mechanism which allows persons to construct new building with setback distances of 5 feet per floor from the property boundary, which apparently is not being policed either and in some instances, the distance is so narrow that the heavy-duty equipment required on those sites cannot successfully enter and function on the premises and are routinely parked on the sidewalks and in the roadways impeding access.

This has proven to be a particularly vexed issue with residents of not only Seymour Lands but also those residing in the residential sections of New Kingston where in some instances building construction occurs on top of the perimeter walls dividing properties and foundations for multi-story buildings are excavated (leaving a 40 ft hole in the ground) and then abandoned. All this within the full view of the Councillor for the Trafalgar Division and Deputy Chairman of the KSAC’s Building Committee, Waderoy Clarke, who routinely traverses the very streets on which the breaches are being committed but takes no remedial action.

Whereas the mayor continues to enjoy the confidence of the citizenry, it is critical that he intervenes urgently in the management of the local authority as unscrupulous developers continue to dismiss the edicts of the KSAC, perpetuating a chaotic approach to development. Continued failure to do so will only result in a further loss of legitimacy for the local authority and give credence to a notion of ineffectual governance. The notion of zero tolerance is usually a welcome strategy particularly in the maintenance of law and order. However, with respect to its usage by the KSAC, it has now become a mere buzzword which usually points to a carefully orchestrated sound bite or equally catchy headline, but in actuality heralds a protracted period of inactivity and lassitude.