More than 100 placard-bearing Portmore residents thronged the intersection of Port Henderson Road and the causeway yesterday morning and peacefully made it clear that they felt it was unfair for them to be charged a toll to travel to and from Kingston.

The protest was just the latest in an ongoing squabble between the residents of the dormitory community and the state, over a section of the Highway 2000 toll road being built. Portmore citizens have steadily insisted that they had been assured, when they bought their homes, that the causeway was the route into Kingston. However, that bridge is to be demolished and transformed into a six-lane toll highway as part of the Highway 2000 project.

The government has pointed to the Mandela Highway as an alternate route that would provide a way around paying the toll, but residents have complained that going that way would create traffic snarls and significantly lengthen their journey.

Last year, residents threatened to take the government to court over the issue, a threat repeated during yesterday’s well-organised demonstration as protestors held aloft pre-prepared placards with catchy phrases like ‘Hold Dung Tek Wey’, ‘Toll or Taxes? Leave the Bridge!’ and ‘Development Yes, Toll No’. There were radio ads on Friday urging residents to participate in the protest.

“We are now boxed in. This is the only community that you have to pay to leave,” said Vincent Dunn. He has lived in Portmore for 12 years and he is the spokesperson for the Portmore Joint Citizens Association (PJCA), the umbrella organisation for the municipality’s 63 citizens’ groups. “There are 40,000 cars driving out of and into Portmore (every) morning and evening and that is why they are making Portmore the cash cow of the project,” Dunn said.

He also had harsh words for Transport and Works Minister Robert Pickersgill, whom he accused of ignoring the residents’ concerns.

“The minister does not want to speak to us. We have e-mailed, called and written letters to him but he has not responded. We hope that he will respond to this (protest). If he doesn’t, there will be more protests,” said Dunn.

But Pickersgill told the Sunday Observer that he has been in dialogue with the residents and is more than willing to meet with them again.

“If they want to meet again, I will meet with them again and hear what they say,” said the minister.

Yesterday’s protest, he said, was premature, as the talks are continuing.

“More meetings were planned but individual schedules conflicted and before they were hammered out, I heard rumblings about a protest. I thought, ‘well fine they can protest, it’s their right’,” Pickersgill said.

He also refuted claims that he told protest organisers that he would not meet with them if they took to the streets. “I endorse their right to protest. I heard that it was peaceful and in good spirits, so nothing is wrong with that.”

And the minister conceded that his ministry had been tardy in starting a public education campaign on the merits of the toll road. “I admit that the public education campaign has not yet been launched and the prime minister wants to get it done.

He has instructed that it be launched soon.”

Like the minister, Portmore’s mayor George Lee, who was not at the protest, cautioned residents to leave themselves open to dialogue. And he also appealed to the government to stick to its proposal to offer Portmore residents a concessionary toll rate.

“Portmore residents should be given a concessionary toll and there should be direct benefits to the municipality coming from the toll,” Lee said. Keith Hinds, who unsuccessfully ran against Lee in Portmore’s inaugural mayoral race, had another suggestion.

“If you are going to take the people’s road, at least clear their mortgages,” he said. “The cost of the causeway was factored into the cost of the houses. So the causeway is really not government’s to take or make pronouncements over.”

About 10 heavily-armed lawmen kept a watchful eye on yesterday’s protest, which lasted for more than three hours.

“They are expressing their democratic right; they can demonstrate peacefully as long as no laws are broken,” said head of the St Catherine South police division Cornelius Walker.