Local Government Minister Desmond McKenzie answering questions during Friday's sitting of Parliament's Standing Finance Committee which is examining the 2025/26 Estimates of Expenditure. (Photo: Joseph Wellington)
March 8, 2025
Chronic street light theft
Chesterfield Drive targeted 12 times; area being used as a dump
JAMAICA Public Service Company (JPS) has been forced to replace the street lamps along Chesterfield Drive in St Andrew on 12 occasions since the road was extended to serve as a bypass in December 2018, because the lamps are constantly stolen.
This was disclosed by Local Government Minister Desmond McKenzie during Friday’s sitting of Parliament’s Standing Finance Committee examining the 2025/26 budget.
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He was responding to a statement from Opposition Member of Parliament for St Andrew Western Anthony Hylton that the stretch of road, which runs from Spanish Town Road to Marcus Garvey Drive through Seaview Gardens, was being used as a dump site.
“It is being used as a secondary dump site. It is unsightly, and it really needs to be attended to,” Hylton said.
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McKenzie, who has previously spoken about the issue affecting Chesterfield Drive, noted that when the road was cut, it was fully lit by JPS.
“In the last meeting we had with the JPS a couple weeks ago, they reported that they have installed about 12 sets of street lights [along Chesterfield] and all 12 sets were stolen,” McKenzie shared.
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He said he cannot force JPS to constantly replace the street lights, and argued that the dumping problem is a result of the absence of street lights.
McKenzie said he has been told by National Solid Waste Management Authority that several operations have been carried out to remove the garbage, “but as you clean it, they put it back — and because the place is dark, under the cover of darkness you find a lot of dumping taking place there”.
He appealed to Jamaicans to desist from dumping their garbage along the thoroughfare.
During his contribution to the 2022 Sectoral Debate in Parliament, McKenzie described as “worrying” the repeated theft of street lamps, noting that some corridors were hit by criminals several times in one month.
“We have the breakdown of where the thefts have occurred, from parish to division. Unscrupulous people are preying on the network of JPS all over the country,” the minister said at the time.
He had disclosed that in the prior financial year, 723 street lights were stolen, and JPS spent more than $47 million to replace them.
“The taxpayers of this country must know that the average cost of replacing one street light is US$420,” said McKenzie. He said that while the thievery has occurred in every parish, two roads are particularly affected.
He said then that Chesterfield Drive was the site of repeated thefts, with 32 street lamps — along with 3,200 metres of service wire — stolen on three separate occasions. Those had to be replaced at a cost of nearly US$50,000.
“The JPS is reporting that lights along the Chesterfield main road have been stolen for a fourth time and that it will cost US$16,000 to replace them,” McKenzie said.
