The Planning Department yesterday issued a stop work notice on the controversial Chaplin Estate Road site after land owners had already begun work on a roadway. The land which is woodland reserve is protected by a Section 34 Planning agreement.

Brian Rowlinson, Permanent Secretary to the Environment, said yesterday the land owners had not submitted the Section 34 agreement to the Ministry of the Environment for revision. The area, which concerns a 4.4 acre parcel of land divided into two lots overlooking Harbour Road in the vicinity of ?Spithead?.

Mr. Rowlinson said planning department inspectors will check the site on a regular basis and he has written to the owners? attorney to make it clear that work cannot recommence on site until the issue of the section 34 agreement is decided.

Both lots of Chaplin Estate have been developed with homes. In 1988 a Section 34 agreement was entered into between the then Minister of the Environment Arthur Hodgson and owner to restrict the development of the northern half of the site and to protect the woodland area at the request of the Bermuda National Trust.

In July 2000, Mr. Hodgson approved on appeal the construction of a driveway off Harbour Road and through the protected woodland to give vehicular access to both lots.

The Bermuda National Trust appealed the Minister?s decision to the Supreme Court in 2000. The Supreme Court decision was subsequently appealed to the Court of Appeal on behalf of the Minister. In June 2003 the Court of Appeal judgement quashed the Supreme Court decision and confirmed that the planning permission for the roadway stands, and concluded that the applicants had to still apply to the Minister to amend the restrictive covenants of the section 34 agreement.

?Until today, no such application had been made,? said Mr. Rowlinson. ?Therefore, as soon as the Ministry was advised that work had started on site, an inspector went to the site and issued a Stop Work notice. Work stopped immediately.?

Landowners, Keith James and Roger Raynor, have had their attorneys make written application to the Minister to amend the Section 34 agreement. Mr. Rowlinson said the application will be put before the Minister.

Director of the Bermuda National Trust, Steve Conway, told the owners of the land at Chaplin Estate on Harbour Road in Warwick have started the excavation of a driveway through a wooded hillside protected by a Section 34 Planning Agreement.

Mr. Conway said the Planning Department was now monitoring the situation. The National Trust?s lawyer Alan Dunch is off the Island and could not be reached for comment.