Kingston Mayor Desmond McKenzie yesterday threatened business operators who flouted the city council's advertising procedures of more crackdowns, warning he was intent on punishing offenders.

McKenzie, who yesterday led an exercise to remove illegal billboards on Hagley Park Road, said the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation (KSAC), Jamaica's most powerful parish council, has lost more than $100 million in revenue from the illegal erection of signage.

"People continue to violate and to flout the regulations as people feel that there is no teeth, but we have teeth and we are going to bite," said Mayor McKenzie.

Desmond dean of discipline

The mayor and his team went on the prowl along the major commercial corridor of Hagley Park Road, prying signs from businesses, toppling posts and ripping posters from utility poles.

And though traffic ground to a snarl as the removal crew got to work, at least one motorist was in support of the thrust.

"I don't mind it, because discipline has to start somewhere," she said.

In the meantime, Mayor McKenzie warned that the KSAC's sign-removal campaign would intensify throughout the Corporate Area in coming weeks.

"We are going to have this exercise until we bring back some semblance of order to the city of how advertising is done," he said.