intends to set up an industrial composting facility on Southside.

However it also emerged that Bioferm Compost Systems International -- operating on the Island as Bermuda Compost Systems International -- have not yet signed an agreement with the company managing the former US Naval Air Station.

BCSI intends to operate a bio-fermenter at Corregidor Avenue on the former US Base.

Yesterday the Development Applications Board approved its plan to relocate the previously approved facility to Andrew's Drive.

However the firm has yet to seal a formal agreement with the Bermuda Land Development Company.

BLDC spokesman Don Grearson said the site the company now wished to set up its operation on was a designated industrial area near the airfield.

But he noted: "We still have some due diligence to perform. We are still continuing to work with the company and we still have questions to be answered about their process.'' A formal agreement would not be in place until these were answered, he added.

The Board noted that a building permit would be required before work began on the site and that it would have to be landscaped within three months of a Certificate of Use and Occupancy Permit being issued.

It also stressed, as it had done in its original approval, that outdoor storage of raw waste materials was prohibited.

The Board also said it would not allow exterior flood lighting; that provision had to be made for surface water run-off; and that to safeguard the amenity of the neighbourhood, the hours of operation would be restricted to 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. between Monday and Friday and from 7 a.m. to noon on Saturdays.

The New Hampshire company said its "in-vessel'' composting system could create humus-rich soil in eight days without the associated smells and vermin problems of conventional composting methods.