POLITICIANS have come under fire from a business leader for failing to tackle the issue of a long-term plan for the City of Hamilton.

Charles Gosling, president of the Chamber of Commerce, added that those involved in a retail industry geared for tourism had felt let down by a series of Tourism Ministers whose promises of increased visitor numbers had gone unfulfilled.

Mr. Gosling took aim at the Progressive Labour Party Government, which he said was more concerned with short-term measures to boost its vote at the next election than long-term planning, while the United Bermuda Party had not yet proved effective in Opposition.

And he also argued against the scrapping of the 60/40 Bermudian ownership rule, a suggestion put forward by former Premier Sir John Swan in this newspaper last week.

With many local businesses still battling for survival after the devastating blow of September 11 and the accelerated decline in visitor numbers, Mr. Gosling felt long-term strategies needed to be high on the Government's agenda, with public involvement in the decision-making process.

"I don't think the Opposition has yet found its role of being a true Opposition," said Mr. Gosling. "And the Government has started to concentrate more and more on trying to provide something good for the voters for the next election and there is no long-term planning from what I can see.

"I think it's really important that the country as a whole should get into proper strategic planning and where we envisage ourselves in five or ten years. Markets are changing and we should really be looking at where we want to be in five years and set proper targets.

"When the Hamilton plan was released last year, a number of people questioned whether it was a development plan at all. What it did do was to lay down a number of rules, to say what could and could not be done.

"We need to look at items like the future of Hamilton docks - that's been under discussion for about 30 years - and every year we delay the decision on that, the expenses increase.

"If change is going to happen, I think that in terms of strategic planning, it needs to be discussed now."

A docks relocation to any one of three oft-suggested sites - St. David's, St. George's or the north shore near the incinerator - threw up many questions, said Mr. Gosling.

And he said he would like that decision to be made by a well-educated public, after a serious debating of the issues.

Sir John Swan has suggested that the docks be moved out of the capital and a casino built to bring in more visitors. And he has also called for the scrapping of the 60/40 rule, which he said "had produced a bunch of retailers who had failed".

Mr. Gosling disagreed. "I think that retailers overall have been quite successful," he said. "Unfortunately what we have is a retail market which has built itself according to the conditions of the early and mid-'80s.

"It has based its further development on the promises made by various Tourism Ministers of a return to those early `80s and higher numbers of visitors. That has not transpired and the retailers have lost a significant amount of their consumer base. So we are in a position now where we are `over-retailed'.

"A number of retailers have responded well to the change in the market - some have their own Internet sites and they have been improving their quality of service for many years."

Members of the Chamber were broadly against scrapping the 60/40 rule, added Mr. Gosling.

"Getting rid of the 60/40 rule would enable Bermuda retailers to get overseas investment and fund development through capital rather than through bank overdrafts, which is very expensive," Mr. Gosling conceded.

"But if you look at the islands to the south, some of them have freeport areas and you might see a lot of activity there. But when you look at their infrastructure it's nowhere near as developed as Bermuda's is.

"Part of the reason for that is that the owners of the businesses producing the income for the country live in this country and are interested in it. If you get rid of 60/40, then the participants in business will be looking at ways of maximising profit and trying to minimalise reinvestment."