The United Kingdom Privy Council on Monday put an end to the dispute over the imposition of a toll on the Portmore leg of Highway 2000 when it ruled that it was not a constitutional breach.

Six Portmore residents, including four Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) councillors, had taken the Government to court over the imposition of the toll.

They contended that the toll amounted to compulsory acquisition of property and was also a breach of their constitutional rights to enjoyment of property.

In June last year, the Court of Appeal, comprising Justice Seymour Panton, Justice Howard Cooke and Justice Zaila McCalla, threw out the residents' appeal and they took the matter to the Privy Council.

"It is difficult to see how the imposition of a toll for use of the new road could constitute taking possession of any property," the Privy Council held. It said further that if the appellants were to succeed, they needed to bring the case within the acquisition of an interest in or right over property.

Attorney-at-law Oswald James, who represented the appellants, had also argued that Mandela Highway did not form a route accessible to the public, as required by the Toll Roads Act.

Former Solicitor General Michael Hylton, Q.C., had made a PowerPoint demonstration to the Privy Council to show how effective th route was.

Mandela Highway approved

The Privy Council said the Constitutional Court and the Court of Appeal found that the Mandela Highway did form a route. The Privy Council said those were concurrent findings of fact which, in accordance with its settled practice, the board would not review.

The appellants sought an injunction restraining the Government from demolishing the Hunts Bay Bridge but the Privy Council held that its summary rejection by the Constitutional Court and the Court of Appeal was entirely justified.