Premier the Hon. Sir John Swan and Works Minister the Hon. Clarence Terceira carting a sack of compost to Parliament.

Sir John placed the sack on the table of the House for all to sniff and inspect in a bid to prove the waste being dumped at Government's composting site did not smell or harbour rats and bugs.

But Progressive Labour Party members were not convinced. And the composting operation at the foot of Pembroke Dump was once again hotly debated in the Motion to Adjourn.

The PLP has attacked Government's decision to use the field opposite Victor Scott School for the compost dump, saying it was bringing awful smells, roaches, flies and even rats to the neigbourhood.

Dr. Terceira, however, has dismissed the Opposition's claims as "utter nonsense''.

Sir John opened the House session by making a statement on the composting operation.

"In order to close Pembroke Dump and create a park, we need about 30,000 truckloads of soil,'' he said. "This will take a few years to create.

Therefore, we are starting as soon as possible. Glebe Field is one of the areas we are composting at. Other areas will be introduced as they become available ...

"The materials that are being composted at Glebe Field are only horticultural waste and paper products. No cockroaches, flies, rats or odours result.

"Yes, there are problems associated with Pembroke Dump. We recognise this and have been working on remedying these. The compost in Glebe Field is not adding to these problems, but rather helping to improve the situation.'' But Shadow Environment Minister Mr. Julian Hall pointed out the site Government had chosen for the operation was located in "the most densely populated area of Bermuda''.

He dismissed Sir John's bringing a bag of compost to the House as nothing more than "political gimmickry'' and said Government "would do well to stop politicising the issue''.

PLP leader Mr. Frederick Wade, saying the operation was definitely producing a smell, asked why the compost in the bag was not wet, since it had rained Thursday night in Pembroke.

"What I saw down there today was dark and moist. What I see in that bag looks quite different,'' he noted.

Pembroke East Central MP Mr. David Allen said the people of his constituency had suffered so long there was "a good case to be made for reparation''.

Shadow Health Minister Mr. Nelson Bascome repeated statements he made to The Royal Gazette on Thursday that the operation was damaging the ecology of the area and one of the Island's major water lenses.

Responding to Dr. Terceira's claim the compost being dumped at the site was too lightweight to affect the peat layer, Mr. Bascome said the Minister was not taking into account the compost's weight when it was wet.

But, Environment Minister the Hon. Ann Cartwright DeCouto said she "categorically denied'' the dumping of compost at Glebe Field was damaging the ecology or underlying water lens.

If anything, she said, it enhanced the ecology by acting as a buffer in preventing harmful substances from Pembroke Dump getting into the lens.

COMPOST `PROOF' -- Premier the Hon. Sir John Swan and Works Minister the Hon.

Clarence Terceira carted a bag of compost to Parliament on Friday. They "tabled'' it in a bid to prove to the PLP that the horticultural waste and cardboard bits being dumped at the Glebe Field composting site were not producing smells or harbouring bugs and rats.