appeals will now be heard at a public inquiry by an outside consultant is a step in the right direction. We would have preferred that the Minister of the Environment give up his right to over-rule the Development Applications Board but that right does have certain advantages if it is used as it should be -- only when there is evidence of a miscarriage of justice.

A public hearing of appeals by an outside planning inspector will reassure the public that these appeals are not being decided on the basis of political pressures on a Minister who is first and foremost a politician. The truth is that pressures on the Minister must have been very great in two recent highly controversial decisions, the Ship's Hill application by Bermuda Properties and the Vesey Street National Equestrian Centre.

Environment Minister John Irving Pearman has been quoted as telling the House of Assembly on Monday during the Budget debate: "We think this is more open and more democratic and affords the system the credit it deserves rather than the criticism it attracts.'' Mr. Pearman also said: "Now we're putting in place a different system and there's going to be a buffer between the Planning Director and the Minister, with a consultant to deal with these issues.'' There have been enormous public concerns that Bermuda's open space was being gobbled up to no real purpose and that was especially true of Ship's Hill. The controversy arose largely because the public did not see the Minister as an independent decision maker. Much of that uncertainty should now disappear, especially if the proposed outside planning inspector is truly independent and if the public can both attend and be informed of the content of the public hearings. Decisions which affect the future of every Bermudian and which are taken behind closed doors are never very satisfactory simply because we all believe that justice should be seen to be done.

Speaking of the issues, Mr. Pearman is quoted as saying: "They will even go into public inquiries so that the sort of concerns we have seen in the past do not reappear.'' Credit should be given to watchdog groups, the Bermuda National Trust and Save Open Spaces, without which this would probably never have come about. It seems to us to be important to remember the public service these groups contribute.

Often it is not the controversial objections they make which prevent the desecration of Bermuda but the very fact that they exist and thus act as a restraint. It is difficult to imagine what a mess Bermuda might be today without the National Trust and SOS.