The Coconut Grove Business League (CGBL) could be heading back to court within the next month, this time to the Privy Council.

Ethric Bowe, spokesperson for CGBL, confirmed to Guardian Business that the group has instructed its lawyer to take the matter to the Privy Council, as businesses have yet to recover as a result of the road changes.

"We have given our lawyer instructions. There is movement on the legal front. He should be taking the matter to the Privy Council," he said. "We specifically asked him to take it there.

There has never been a statement of claim per se because the judgEment that we got said that as long as the situation persists, damages continue."

"Nobody has had their sales go back to what they used to be. Nobody's business has recovered so to speak. The damages continue.

The accountants will really have to work that out."

The CGBL has long called for Baillou Hill Road and Market Street to be returned to two-way thoroughfares, and said the road construction altered shopping and travel patterns, drastically impacting business.

In May, Michael Halkitis, the minister of state for finance, confirmed that 248 businesses applied for the government's $15 million road works relief plan.

Businesses reported around $100 million in losses during the application process.

At the time, government officials have insisted that the $15 million plan, consisting mostly of non-cash incentives, is the most the country can afford in these difficult times.

The CGBL has also found the government's road works relief plan that offered a number of discounts and incentives insufficient compared to the millions it claims Bahamian entrepreneurs lost during the project.

"The bottom line is this government has the power to make these changes. The adverse impact of their actions, they just need to pay for it," Bowe stressed to Guardian Business.

"You see we would move forward significantly as a society if we would just accept that principle.

If you break something, you would have to fix it." "That is well established in law.

So yes the government can change the road, they can destroy your businesses but the law requires that they compensate you for it."

While the Christie administration's roadworks relief plan has come and gone, the association of more than 50 businesses is committed to getting more compensation.

Earlier this year, when asked if the government can realistically afford more bailouts, Bowe told Guardian Business: "They can afford it. They want to build a new Parliament and a new residence for the prime minister. The government has an obligation and they don't disappear because they mismanaged the country. They have to honor their obligations."

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