Britain is responsible for a multimillion dollar operation to clean-up the former United States baselands, a former environment minister said yesterday.

And, during yet another reprise of the ongoing row over the issue, Government insisted that asking the United Kingdom to pay remained an option.

“If there was a feeling that Bermuda was shortchanged, one could look to the other signatory,” said Works and Engineering Minister Alex Scott, who noted that Bermuda was a witness to the signing of the handover agreement and not an actual signatory.

The handover negotiations were concluded earlier this year and a formal signing ceremony took place in Washington D.C. June 18.

The deal, negotiated by the UK Government ended the 99 year lease of the land 38 years ahead of schedule. Bermuda is to receive $11 million to fulfil the US's obligations to maintain Longbird Bridge and Washington has promised to look at the possibility of providing a Coast Guard vessel for Bermuda and of providing training facilities in the US for the Bermuda Regiment.

The Opposition considers the deal a “sellout” and points to estimates of $65 million for the clean-up.

Former Environment Minister Arthur Hodgson went further during the House of Assembly's motion to adjourn and said he believed Britain “was under a cloud of wrong doing” and that the responsibility to clean up “the mess they left us with” lay with that country.

Meanwhile, Opposition MPs lined up to accuse Government of “floundering” on the issue and said that recent comments by Mr. Scott indicated Government was divided over whether the deal negotiated by the UK Government was in fact a good one.

Mr. Hodgson said Bermuda's colonial status vindicated it from any responsibility in negotiating for the clean-up.

“We have to deal with the reality of the legal relationships between these different groups of people. The reality is that Bermuda is a colony and, put simply, that means Britain is our ruler.

“At no point were we ever in the position to negotiate anything with the United States because we are a colony.”

Mr. Hodgson added that he felt Britain had been self-interested in negotiating with the US in the 1940s to put a base here “that almost would have split Bermuda in half”. “We are no longer assuming this responsibility,” he said. “It is up to Britain to make sure that the trash that was left here as a result of their interests is cleaned up.

“The moral responsibility is on them to clean up these bases.”

Britain's part in slavery and colonialism only gave the country more of an obligation to take action on the issue, he continued.

UBP Leader Grant Gibbons started the reprise during yesterday's motion to adjourn in what largely amounted to a repetition of Opposition criticism of the PLP's handling of the issue.

He pointed to the fact that Deputy Governor Tim Gurney had told the Mid Ocean News that he would be “very surprised” if Government tried to push for the UK to pay the costs.

Early this week, this newspaper reported Mr. Scott as saying that either interested developers in the former property would pay the cleanup costs in exchange for concessions or Government might turn to the UK.

“The UK Government has made it clear they are not going to pay for anybody's mess,” said Dr. Gibbons. The suggestion that the UK had an obligation to pay the costs implied that Mr. Scott believed that the UK Government had negotiated a bad deal and that contradicted Premier Jennifer Smith's assessment that the deal was a more generous one than what the Canadians received when the US pulled out of bases there.

In addition, he argued that the fact the PLP handled the recent signing ceremony in Washington with much fanfare and even paid for members of the press to be there meant Government was happy with the deal.

“Is there a difference of opinion ?” he asked. “What is the real position of the PLP Government? “ Dr. Gibbons repeated criticisms made earlier - that the taxpayer would have to pay the bill, that the deal was a bad one and the PLP had no real plan for the cleanup.

Mr. Scott sought to clarify the report of his comments to this newspaper.

“The Royal Gazette got it wrong,” he said, and letters had been written to that effect. He had in fact said that giving concessions to developers, or reducing the price of the land, in exchange for the cleanup, while an option, may not be the best option.

And he said the United Bermuda Party's (UBP) attitude amounted to heaping scorn on the United States, a country he described as Bermuda's friends and trading partners.