Opposition Senator said yesterday.

Sen. Kim Swan admitted the West End Development Company's work on the rebirth of Dockyard had hit Somerset Village.

He said: "Dockyard has had an impact on Somerset Village and I know there are business people in the area who are hoping for a ferry dock up there so people can come in. But in the long-term, construction of a hotel in Dockyard would help Somerset.

"Guests would walk down to the village and there would be an even better relationship between Dockyard and the village and WEDCO and the village.'' Sen. Swan was speaking as the Upper House approached the end of the Budget debate on the Ministry of Development, Opportunity and Government Services.

Earlier, he said much had been accomplished to improve tourism with new attractions.

But he added: "There is a deal which hasn't been fulfilled yet and it relates to Morgan's Point.'' Sen. Swan said the Minister, Terry Lister , had already said Government did not want another Tucker's Town at the old US Navy base -- and a percentage of the housing to be built with Bermudians in mind.

But he added the Bermuda Land Development Company was there to replace lost income from the bases -- not to "solve social problems.'' Senators, however, clashed on what Mr. Lister had meant, with Sen. Swan interpreting him as saying he wanted low cost housing.

But Sen. Walwyn Hughes -- in the chair for the debate -- said a section of the housing was to be affordable, from $400,000 to $1 million, not low cost.

Government Senate Leader Milton Scott added later that some houses will be built on the old base lands for the elderly -- not the type of housing Sen.

Swan appeared to be talking about.

But Sen. Swan warned that Government had to get Morgan's Point -- a housing and golf development -- right if it wanted to attract top-level tourists back to the Island.

He said that corporate executives who planned conventions often weighed entertainment and leisure facilities as a major factor in their choice of destination.

Sen. Swan added that he was a long-time advocate of affordable housing, but insisted that could not be allowed to interfere with plans to boost the Island's economy.

He said: "I have been involved in a golf course project right from the advisory committee stage -- four years before the ground-breaking started.

"I know some of the problems when we have a golf development running through homes where people are not golf-literate or golf-tolerant.'' And Sen. Swan added: "We have an opportunity to put something there and get it right because you can't have a five-star or four-star operation just because you think it is.

"It has to be five- or four-star to the people looking in -- they're going to compare it to what they know.'' Sen. Swan went on to say the National Training Board should forge closer links with small businesses to help provide training opportunities for young Bermudians.

And he said if no training was available, the supply of recruits for trades like plumbing would dry up.

But he pointed out that training would not be available if people were "struggling'' in business.

Sen. Swan said: "Small businesses are finding it so hard that they can't take four or five trainees on like our forefathers did.''