Elizabeth Gonzales
Tobago Corespondent
Just a month after a judge’s ruling to halt construction at the Friendship Connection Road project, the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) has been hit with another injunction against the project.
Ray Shastri Rampersad and Savitri Rampersad, represented by Anand Ramlogan SC, were granted an interim injunction yesterday restraining the THA from entering and occupying their Kilgwyn Estate property. They are claiming damages for trespass, including aggravated and/or exemplary damages, interest, cost and relief.
The claimants have accused the THA of unlawfully and wrongfully entering the property which was demolished, cleared and/or bulldozed for constructing the road between December 2023 and January 2024.
Lawyers served a pre-action protocol letter to the THA but said there has been no substantive reply to date.
This is the third injunction filed against the project in less than a year since work started. The project is more than 75 per cent completed and was expected to be completed this week.
This latest legal action comes three weeks after Derek Hearn, of Mill House 2, Friendship Estate, through his lawyers, accused the THA of acting illegally, unfairly and violating his constitutional rights.
On February 28, Justice Eleanor Donaldson-Honeywell granted Hearns the injunction. The following day construction on the 2.5-kilometre flexible pavement, single carriageway from Cove Road to Store Bay Local Road at Canaan came to a complete standstill.
That injunction application said the Hearns were not given prior notice or consulted about the roadworks on the land that includes Mill House 1 and 2, a two-storey house, horse stables, a flat, an apiary, a garden, a bus house, and other structures.
The lawyers argued that construction began without the necessary approvals and damaged the property. They also argued that the THA had breached the Land Acquisition Act.
The THA claimed that the estate was acquired through compulsory acquisition in 2009 and Hearn has no rights to the land. The THA also argued that they did not require planning permission for the project.
Infrastructure, Quarries and Urban Development Secretary Trevor James said the law exempted this project and it does not require Town and Country Planning approval. However, the injunction classified it as “unauthorized and contrary to law.”
The judge agreed on March 19 to lift the injunction. As part of the agreement, the THA said it would not enter or construct anything on the land owned by Hearn until the court makes a final decision on the matter.
In the project’s early stages last year, the Environmental Management Agency (EMA) filed a lawsuit against the development for lacking necessary approvals. Initially, the court granted the EMA an injunction to halt road construction, but it was later lifted and a CEC was granted prompting the THA to get the necessary requirements.
Neither James nor Chief Secretary Farley Augustine could be reached for comment yesterday afternoon.
At a recent political meeting in Speyside, Augustine said the project will be completed.
He said: Look at the fight down over the road . . . .They could bring injunction, they could find horse man or ass man. It don’t matter who they find, the road will be completed.”