A pile of garbage in front of a house in Westgate Hills, Montego Bay. (Photo: Anthony Lewis)

March 25, 2026

Losing its lustre

Westgate Hills residents decry condition of community

WESTGATE HILLS, St James — Once seen as one of the more desirable addresses in Montego Bay, Westgate Hills is rapidly losing its lustre, according to area residents whose long-running challenges with bad roads and inadequate garbage collection are now being exacerbated by an increase in traffic as their main road is used as a bypass.

“There are people who…cannot get into their house because of how severe the traffic is,” outspoken community member Amanda Bowen said in an interview with the Jamaica Observer.

For many Montegonians, taking Westgate Boulevard has long been a way to avoid the congested streets of downtown and get to Ironshore on the other side of the city. The route through the hills has grown in popularity, embraced as an informal bypass as work progresses on the perimeter road. Traffic is very heavy during morning and evening rush hours. Bowen said their nightmare began more than two years ago.

“There are a lot of potholes and littering. People drive and they just litter the place. Garbage is everywhere. It is disgusting,” she said.

She told the Observer residents were advised that the National Works Agency (NWA) is responsible for the change in road usage patterns. In that case, she argued, the State agency should be responsible for maintaining the road. She also complained that many roadways within the community have received no attention since the establishment of Westgate Hills.

“I don’t see why we can’t be a part of the SPARK [Shared Prosperity through Accelerated Improvement] programme. Just because we’re not ghetto. It doesn’t make any sense,” Bowen insisted.

For the last year she has lobbied for her street to be repaired and she said the Mayor of Montego Bay Richard Vernon promised to have it fixed. During a visit to the community last week Tuesday, workmen were seen patching Westgate Hills Boulevard near the intersection with Phoenix Drive.

Even as they nudge local authorities into doing even more, Bowen and her neighbours are not averse to helping themselves. Well aware that some of the National Solid Waste Management Authority’s (NSWMA) equipment was damaged during last October’s Hurricane Melissa, that there are a lot of multi-family dwellings in the community, and NSWMA employees have a challenging job, a number of residents on her street have come together to find a way to alleviate the situation.

“We have actually hired a private garbage collector who will come once a month and then NSWMA should come once a month as well. That means…we will have twice a month garbage collection, which is what we should have,” explained Bowen.

But there is one challenge they have no idea how to handle. There is a 39-year-old mentally ill man who is squatting in their community and walks around with six dogs. Bowen said he often creates a mess by rummaging through garbage in search of food for his animals.

“He lives around here with his father who squats on one of the properties. When we ask them [the local authorities] what can we do to get rid of him, they say at the end of the day they’re squatting on somebody’s private property and it is the owner of the property’s responsibility to come and get them off of the land. That means there’s nothing that we can do,” relayed Bowen, who at times has tried to have mental health officials provide support for the man.

Inaction by some property owners is also evident in a number of unkempt open lots. Bowen is concerned about what is being disposed of at these location.

“They’re dumping dead bodies when they’re ready: dead cats, dead humans, dead anything, they dump here and there. There are murders in the community. There were even rapes in the community but all of it is on the hush-hush,” she alleged.

“There are break-ins in the community. One man has had three break-ins in the community. Some of these streets are quite lonely and it’s because of all of these empty lots. We cannot contact the owners for these lots. Some of them are abroad. Some of them are ‘dead-lef’ and their relatives don’t care because it doesn’t affect them,” Bowen added.

However, Councillor Kerry Thomas, in whose Mount Salem Division Westgate Hills falls, noted that some of the land in question belongs to the community as a whole.

“Sometimes we need stronger organisations to help manage these and use these community lands for the use of the community and also as an income-earner,” he suggested.

And while he noted that overgrown lots are not unique to Westgate, he is just as concerned that they harbour criminals.

“We have had a few robberies in Westgate Hill in recent times,” Thomas told the Observer.

He also agreed with Bowen that the use of Westgate Boulevard as a bypass to get to Ironshore is problematic. In addition to the road not being built to handle that level of traffic, he is concerned that it has resulted in undesired activities within the community.

“Now you have more people driving through the community, which would have led to the community being more exposed to other violent acts that occur based on more traffic coming through. Because we have seen some rapes take place there. We have even seen in the media recently where there was a murder of a taxi operator within the community itself. These are issues that need to be addressed systematically,” said the councillor.

“The complaints of the residents are real, and there are things we need to look at systematically. Policymakers have to put policies in place to deal with things like garbage collection. That is a solid waste thing. They need to get more efficient at what they’re doing because that is just dropping the ball on some basic things,” he added.