AN injunction filed by the Kingston and St Andrew Corporation (KSAC) against communications company FLOW, is scheduled to be heard by the court this week as the city council attempts to block the telecoms company from digging up roads in the Corporate Area to lay cables without planning permission.

Last week, Kingston Mayor Desmond McKenzie confirmed that a hearing to determine if the injunction filed by the KSAC against FLOW should be granted has been scheduled for Thursday.

Richard Pardy, the chief executive officer of Columbus Communications which operates in Jamaica under the brand name FLOW, maintained that Information minister Donald Buchanan had given the company word that government would grant FLOW the licence to provide subscriber television service islandwide.

But last week Mayor McKenzie told the Building and Town Planning meeting of the KSAC that FLOW was using an agreement it had with the government to lay cables in the Corporate Area within a certain time frame, to operate “as a law on to itself”.

He said that FLOW’s deadlines with the government “can’t be met at the expense of the law”.

According to McKenzie, under the Town and Country Planning Act the KSAC was required to give permission for work to be done above ground or below ground on KSAC roads as well as on main roads under the jurisdiction of the National Works Agency (NWA).

The Mayor said persons have been complaining to the KSAC that the trenches FLOW was laying in the road were causing inconvenience.

“A man in Mona has complained to the KSAC that he was being denied access to his home because of FLOW, and we spoke to FLOW,” McKenzie said.

He said that “in many cases they dig up the roads and leave them in an untenable condition. They do not reinstate them properly.”

The mayor told the Observer that FLOW was not cooperating with the KSAC, saying the company failed to obey a March 31 work stop order when it failed to apply to the Building and Town Planning committee for the required planning permission to dig up the roads to lay the cables. He said that the company continued to do roadworks despite the injunction.

“They are not cooperating… last weekend they were observed doing major work in the East Street, Georges Street, Tower Street and John’s Lane areas downtown. They blocked off the road. All of us want access to Internet but it can’t be at the expense of law and order,” McKenzie said.

McKenzie urged councillors to inform the KSAC of roadworks being carried out by FLOW in their divisions.

“I’m asking councillors anywhere you see FLOW working cutting roads to lay cables, report it,” the mayor said.

In March 2005, the Technology ministry granted the firm a

licence to land an underwater fibre-optic cable in Jamaica to increase the island’s broadband and telecommunications capabilities. Three months after it got this licence, the company applied for the cable licence.

Since last July, FLOW has been providing service to residential customers but has mainly focussed on offering triple play service – a combination of telephone, internet and cable television.

When the Observer contacted the FLOW last week, the company’s marketing spokesman declined to comment on the developments saying, “We do not comment on items before or potentially before the court.”

Meanwhile City Engineer Norman Shand said that at a KSAC meeting with FLOW last Monday, the company was asked to submit a list of “all the roads where they are laying cables and propose to do.”