Ross Sheil, Staff Reporter
Portmore Citizens' Advisory Council (PCAC) chairman, Reverend Barrington Soares (left), speaks to presenter Michael Sharpe (standing) during Television Jamaica's current affairs programme 'Your Issues Live', at the Portmore HEART Academy, Portmore, St. Catherine, on Wednesday night. - WINSTON SILL /FREELANCE PHOTOGRAPHER
JAMAICA LABOUR Party (JLP) councillors say they will take their case over the replacement of the Portmore Causeway with a toll road, to the United Kingdom-based Privy Council if it loses in the local courts.
Speaking on Television Jamaica's Wednesday night current affairs programme, 'Your Issues Live', Portmore Council minority leader Natalie Campbell-Rodriques charged the Government with "disrespect" for imposing the toll road. Speaking at the same event, Portmore Citizens' Advisory Council (PCAC) chairman Barrington Suarez welcomed Prime Minister P.J. Patterson's announcement on the weekend that he would meet with residents in October to discuss the issue.
NOT WAITING ON PM
But according to Mrs. Campbell-Rodriques, the JLP councillors would not be waiting on the Prime Ministers' meeting in October.
She said: "We will be immediately going to the court of appeal because this is over a year and the Prime Minister, just now that the court has ruled, has decided to meet with the people. We take this as complete disrespect."
Attorney-at-law Oswald James filed a lawsuit in the Supreme Court on behalf of five Portmore residents, including JLP councillors Mrs. Campbell-Rodriques, Andrew Wheatley and Keith Blake.
Mrs. Campbell-Rodriques told The Gleaner that she expected a more favourable hearing at the Privy Council where she believed citizens' rights would be given a higher priority.
She argued that polls showing support from residents for the payment of a $30 toll were contradicted by her own experience. Residents, she maintained, did not want to pay the toll.
RESIDENTS WOULD SUPPORT JLP
She claimed residents would be more willing to support the JLP's case than the PCAC, which lost a similar case to the Government in the local court.
"People were cynical because they were willing to negotiate. People didn't believe the poll," she said.
Portmore Mayor George Lee insisted the future lay in negotiation.
He said: "Now that the court has spoken I think what we need to do is to sit down and decide what it is that we are insisting on ... a reasonable toll, upgrading Marcus Garvey, upgrading Mandela to make it a real alternative."
