CABINET will today discuss an organised plan by Portmore residents to boycott the toll road for up to two months in protest against the $60 usage charge.

During a tour of the toll plaza yesterday morning, Robert Pickersgill, the minister for transport, works, housing and water, again urged residents not to carry out their “threats”, saying this would be the main point of discussion before the Cabinet.

“By now most Cabinet members, if not all, would have heard [the calls for a boycott]. I will be bringing it to Cabinet [this morning],” the minister stated.

“I hope that having gone through all the consultations and indeed explanations, good sense will prevail,” Pickersgill said, adding that before people resorted to a boycott, “they should go through the analysis and see if a boycott is justified”.

But at a community forum several hours later, the residents vowed to avoid using the toll road for at least two months to register their disgust. The residents said they would be using the Mandela Highway instead, a move that could cause traffic to pile up for miles. They also plan to distribute flyers, urging other residents to join in the boycott.

And following last night’s decision by the residents, Pickersgill will no doubt need to update the briefs he had planned to take to today’s Cabinet meeting since the “threat” of a boycott has now given way to a firm plan.

Earlier in the day, the minister told journalists that he had asked the residents of Portmore to state how much it presently cost them to travel on the congested roadways. He said they were yet to provide him with an answer.

“We take these things for granted and in taking these things for granted we do not put a cost on time,” Pickersgill said, adding that he was not only referring to personal time, but with respect to fuel consumption.

“We have done the costing. and we say they [toll road users] will be no worse off – in fact, they will be better off,” he remarked.

During yesterday’s tour of the toll plaza, the minister publicly thanked the workers involved in the construction of the Portmore leg of Highway 2000.

He noted that 95 per cent of the workforce was Jamaican and that many of them had now acquired specialised skills, which will enable them to continue working with the highway project.

“Bouygues has gotten the additional work for the $400 million, and I’m sure they’ll be using [the workers] in that regard,” the minister said, noting that, segment three – the Montego Bay to Falmouth leg – may provide some of these workers with additional jobs.