Poet Robert Frost's claim that "good fences make good neighbours'' would be accepted wholeheartedly by two Rosemont Avenue home owners who charge that a new development is encroaching on their properties.

Mary Samuels and Michael Charles are up in arms over a home being built between their properties on a piece of land said to be too small to even accommodate the construction work.

The project, submitted by the Timber Lane Settlement, was denied by the Development Applications Board and other sections of Government on several occasions.

According to Mrs. Samuels and Mr. Charles it was denied on appeal by Pamela Gordon, now the Opposition Leader, when she was Minister of the Environment.

But the two neighbours now claim that Irving Pearman, who followed Ms Gordon as Environment Minister, approved the application on a new appeal launched by former Planning Director Erwin Adderley on behalf of the owner.

Mr. Pearman granted the appeal in December, 1997, one month after he was elected to the House of Assembly in a Pembroke West by-election. Mr. Adderley was re-elected to the House in November, 1998 at the General Election when the UBP lost power.

Mrs. Samuels and Mr. Charles have now called on Environment Minister Arthur Hodgson to step in to avert any further problems.

Mrs. Samuels and Mr. Charles charged that planning approval was granted in a deal between Mr. Pearman and Mr. Adderley.

Mr. Pearman denied the allegations while Mr. Adderley refused to comment.

Permanent Secretary for the Environment Ministry Brian Rowlinson also denied the claims, and noted that the final appeal had the support of the Planning Department's technical officers. (See related story.) But Mrs. Samuels maintained: "I'll tell you, the way this all happened, it smacks of under the table dealings,'' Mrs. Samuels said, "because it happened during an election year. The plans had been turned down two or three times then redrawn and resubmitted a number of times as well,'' she continued.

"During an election year, for this to all of a sudden get approved is more than suspicious,'' she insisted, "and it got approved a few months after Mr.

Adderley decided to throw his hat in the ring and enter politics.'' Mrs. Samuels said: "And don't tell me that this is for the good of Bermuda.

Don't tell me that I elected people as Members of Parliament in order for them to make stupid decisions like this.

"There is no way that anyone in the Department of Planning, who looked at this, would ever have approved it.'' The Health Department and the highways section of Works and Engineering were among the objectors to the development and Mrs. Samuels and Mr. Charles, in their letter to the Minister highlighted important concerns, that were over-ridden, they said.

"A water holding tank, a septic tank, and my well, are lined up back to back on the only available land in front of this building,'' the letter said.

"Every Government Department involved in this matter, including Planning, Health, Ministry of Works & Engineering, Parks & Housing (highways) have had, and continue to have, serious objections.'' Building conflict The Development Applications Board (DAB), in refusing the application, noted the development would encroach on neighbouring properties and "have a detrimental impact on the character and amenity of the residential environment of the area''.

The DAB also noted traffic problems with development of the site, pointing out that it did not allow for any parking or "the safe movement of vehicles to, from and within the site and for minimum sight line visibility''.

Placing some of the blame on the current Government, the letter alleged that the matter was "rubber stamped'' through.

"Although the new Government may have had an opportunity to review this decision in December, 1999, prior to the building permits being granted,'' the letter read, "they chose to rubber stamp the proposal.'' "I think that the only way that the present Government can get out of this situation, and avoid setting a dangerous precedent,'' Mrs. Samuels said, "is by purchasing the property from the present owner and tearing the building down and making it arable land so that it cannot be developed.'' Mr. Charles said he returned home one day recently to find his boundary wall had been knocked down and that workmen on the building site next to his home said they were told that he had sanctioned the action.

Mr. Charles said he was given a different story by the owner of the property.

"He apologised and told me that the workmen just knocked it down. He built another wall but has not done it properly and it will have to be built again,'' he said.

Work crews now frequently block the entrance to Mrs. Samuels' home.

When a Royal Gazette reporter arrived at the scene for an interview, she was told by the crews to get away and warned that she could be injured walking to Mrs. Samuels' home.

Mrs. Samuels is also having construction work carried out at her home and said workmen who should be on her job site are prevented from carrying out their work because her entrance is blocked.

"I have to pay men, who would be working, to sit down and wait because of this development,'' she said. "It's certainly not fair.

"I have come out here and there have been trailers parked on my driveway because the owner didn't tell the workmen that he doesn't own this property, so the workmen park their trailers, their bikes, their cars, and the owner would say they should have known, but they didn't, and so everybody is just going ahead and doing what they have to do to develop this property and the neighbours are the ones left picking up the pieces.''