Former Housing Minister and Government Senate Leader David Burch has not always enjoyed the best press and certainly has not expressed his admiration for the media very often.

But no one would deny that he is an effective manager, as demonstrated by the settlement of the row between the West End Development Corporation and the Bermuda Cement Company.

Lt. Col. Burch ? who became chairman of Wedco last September ? and BCC chairman Jim Butterfield seem to have hammered together a deal that has done that rarest of things: made everyone happy.

According to people close to the negotiations, Lt. Col. Burch was able to make decisions quickly and move the process along after it had been stalled for months.

Now BCC has a new lease and an agreement to build a new storage facility ? allowing for the removal of the unsightly cement silos ? while Wedco should see more rental income and has also accomplished its goal of broadening the ownership of the company.

It is quite possible that much of that could have been established at the outset. For whatever reason, it didn't, and Lt. Col. Burch deserves credit for cutting through the bureaucracy and making the deal happen.

The alternative ? that the Cement Company may have been forced out of Dockyard and replaced by another tenant ? may have sounded good on paper, but might well have had disastrous ramifications for the quango.

That's because while some people felt that the owners of the business had made enough money thank you very much and should now give someone else a turn, business owners would have looked at Wedco and questioned how much confidence they could have in an organisation that would close them down once they had become successful.

It may be that Lt. Col. Burch recognised this and helped to hammer out an agreement that could satisfy everyone. In doing so, he also restored some confidence in Wedco.

Now he faces a new task; convincing his former colleagues in the Cabinet that Wedco should have the right to grant leases that last longer than 21 years. No one denies Wedco's potential, as Matthew Taylor reported recently, but few businesses will want to risk opening a hotel or another form of industry with a short lease. They might be willing to take a chance in a more central location, but Dockyard poses a greater risk.

One would think that if Lt. Col. Burch can make a deal with Mr. Butterfield, who is no friend of the PLP, then he should be able to convince the Cabinet ... but only time will tell.