compost dump, across from a Pembroke primary school, in a bid to prove it was not producing awful smells and bugs.

Accompanied by Works Minister the Hon. Clarence Terceira and Ministry officials, he sniffed and inspected the piles of decomposed vegetation strewn with bits of cardboard.

"I don't smell anything,'' he concluded. "And I don't see any banana trees, cockroaches or flies.'' Agreeing, Dr. Terceira said Pembroke Dump, just above the composting site, was to blame for any smells in the area.

Both Sir John and Dr. Terceira said they sympathised with Pembroke East residents and Victor Scott School students for having to put up with the rubbish dump in their neighbourhood.

But, they pointed out, in just a few more years it would be an attractive 60-acre park.

Dr. Terceira said work on turning the dump into parkland would start in 18 months' time, with the garbage incinerator expected to be on line in early 1994.

"In two years they will have something to be proud of,'' Dr. Terceira said.

"It will be the biggest park in Bermuda.'' He added composting was a critical part of the park plan, because there was "simply not enough soil in Bermuda to cover the dump''.

And Government waste manager Mr. Dan Hoornweg said the composting site was proof that Government was serious about turning the dump into a park.

The only smell The Royal Gazette detected at the composting site yesterday was of fresh earth and wet cardboard. And no roaches were seen crawling through the compost piles, even after several clods of compost were turned over.

However, parents picking up their children at Victor Scott insisted the dump smelled and was producing flies and roaches.

But it was only at certain times of the day that the smell could be detected, they said.

"It's just one scent on top of another,'' said one mother. Another described the smell as "musty''.

A father added: "The dampness and rain makes it stink in the morning and night. And the cockroaches are bigger than you.'' Other concerns included the fact the gate to the compost dump was not secure and there were no signs barring youngsters from playing near it.

"It's unsafe and unclean,'' another mother said, noting she had seen "strange men'' cutting through the field where the compost dump was located.

Dr. Terceira said officials were, in fact, working on securing the gates. Sir John first visited the site, at the old Bishop Spencer field, on Saturday after residents and Pembroke East Central MPs Mr. David Allen and Mr. Stanley Morton complained that the dumping of compost was bringing cockroaches, flies and more smells to the area.

The two MPs asked why Government had not chosen another site for the scheme, such as Dr. Terceira's Pembroke West constituency.

Dr. Terceira dismissed their comments as "utter nonsense'', saying "anyone with any common sense'' would know that the waste, which consisted of leaves, twigs, paper and cardboard boxes, produced no smells or bugs.

He accused the two Opposition members of bringing up the issue for political gain.

Before leaving the site yesterday afternoon, Sir John promised there would be some "dirt-shovelling'' in the House of Assembly on Friday.