JAMROCK has agreed to an out-of-court settlement of $150,000 with the Kingston and St Andrew Corporation (KSAC) for breaching Building and Town Planning regulations at its restaurant in downtown Kingston.

Chairman of the KSAC’s Building and Town Planning Committee, Trevor Bernard, made the disclosure at yesterday’s monthly meeting.

Last month the committee accused the restaurant owners of renovating the building, which formerly housed a commercial bank, without the KSAC’s approval and, despite the breach and several warnings from the corporation, opened the restaurant, disregarding a notice to cease operations immediately which was served on the proprietors.

“The owners came in to us (and) submitted an appropriate building plan and volunteered to pay a fine of $150,000,” Bernard told the Observer after the meeting.

However, Bernard told the meeting that although Jamrock had corrected the building breach, it was still in defiance of the regulation as it had not removed two illegally erected signs on the property.

The committee instructed billboard inspector, Neville Ewers, to serve another notice on the owners to have the signs removed.

City engineer, Text Innerarity, had earlier reported that when he inspected the Jamrock restaurant the breaches were ‘awesome’.

“I found the design and detail totally unsatisfactory, doors were swinging inside instead of outside. I found a manhole right in the middle of the restaurant which the design did not show, the sewerage system was totally blocked, plumbing, drainage and sewer disposals (were) unsatisfactory.”

He said, too, that ventilation and access to the LPG storage area; construction of partitions to achieve fire resistance; the entrance and exits, and areas for waste storage and disposal all contravened the required standards.

The city engineer said the necessary adjustments have been made.

Meanwhile, Jamrock’s chief executive officer, Eleanor Brown, said yesterday that her company had given “100 per cent co-operation with any and all requests by the KSAC and we are extremely grateful for their guidance and co-operation”.

Brown said the application for the signs to be erected were before the KSAC.

Town clerk, Errol Greene, told the Observer that the application was received yesterday.

Bernard said the option to pay the fine was better than going to court as according to the regulations an offender is liable to a fine of up to $1 million per day for as long as it takes to correct the breach. The KSAC, he said, was not interested in “penal servitude”, but was concerned about the strict compliance of the regulations.

Last year the corporation took two offenders to court for similar breaches and the court returned a guilty verdict and fined the defendants $50,000 each