Flooding from Mill Creek and smoke from Belco have given Pembroke Central residents plenty of cause for complaint over the years. Tim Smith visited Constituency 17 for this week's Up Your Street.

"Sooner or later we're going to have to come to grips with things like pollution and drainage," Government MP Wayne Perinchief told The Royal Gazette back in August 2001.

According to residents in Mr. Perinchief's smoky, flooding-plagued constituency nine years on, these problems are being tackled later rather than sooner.

With Belco and Mill Creek both key features of Pembroke Central, this is one area where families and businesses are seeing for themselves the environmental effects of today's Bermuda.

Roads, parks and football pitches were all under 18 inches of water when this newspaper toured Constituency 17 with the Progressive Labour Party backbencher as part of our Up Your Street series.

As happened so often this past wet winter, that day's heavy rain multiplied the effects of the high tide: waterlogging Bernard Park, Dandy Town, the industrial area at Mill Creek Lane and main roads reaching out to Bull's Head.

Much of it stems from development in Hamilton, according to Mr. Perinchief, with water now collecting in large pools near the creek because it has nowhere else to go.

Local businesses, who have long complained flooding is driving away customers, applauded Works and Engineering for temporary work done since the issue was last highlighted in this newspaper a few months ago.

But they said the permanent solution — a more effective sluice gate, pumping station and raised roads — can't happen quickly enough.

Scott Johnson of Johnson's Marine Services on Mill Creek Lane said: "They put a sluice gate in which has improved things a lot, but it's like they put a Band-Aid on it.

"When you get these downpours and the tide comes high, it floods. It damages new vehicles and means people just don't come to my facilities.

"Government need to restructure the engineering, come in and raise the road, come up with some type of drain."

Government has vowed to provide the necessary engineering but has asked land owners to pay for road improvements.

Mr. Johnson argued: "Government is the instigator. They allowed them to build more buildings."

Huw Lewis of Eurotile said: "A lot of the city has become paved over and everything is now directed towards the creek, so it just can't cope."

Mr. Lewis said improvements to the sluice gate had made a difference, explaining: "It seems to flood only now when we have heavy rain which coincides with the high tide.

"In fairness, it's been very, very good compared to what it was. I was a little bit sceptical, but yes their hard work has paid off there."

Mr. Perinchief, who believes a mechanically operated sluice gate would help control the flow of the water, said: "I would say it's past due. It's a perennial issue; a problem not going away. Government haven't really grasped it by the horns.

"It's impacting the economic viability of the businesses along here and is not helping properties' value.

"When it floods, people don't want to go through it; the water comes up over the rims of your cars and will cause damage.

"Flooding is the biggest issue in my entire constituency. We are going to have to deal with this. Once you stop the tide from coming in and start pumping the water out, the water level will start to go down.

"We talk about global warming, tidal rise has increased quite a few centimetres; it's a consideration in Bermuda."

But with money so tight he says the solution will have to be a partnership between businesses and Government.

"The long-term solution is going to be expensive," he warned.

And businesses will hope work doesn't encounter the same difficulties as efforts stabilising Pembroke Canal last year, which ended up costing more than a $1 million after workmen discovered peat moss under the ground.

Beyond the environmental issues, Pembroke Central has not escaped the gun violence which has gripped the rest of the parish, although much of it has focused on neighbouring constituencies.

Last month, a 28-year-old man was taken to hospital after being shot in Government Gate's junction with St. Monica's Road on the edge of the patch.

Other complaints mentioned to this newspaper in Pembroke Central included overbuilding on the North Shore and Mount Hill area, carried out before stricter planning regulations were put in place.

Next week Up Your Street is in Paget West. Residents of that constituency who want to comment should E-mail tsmith@royalgazette.bm.