People living in one of Bermuda's most drug and crime-ridden communities are spearheading a multi-thousand dollar rejuvenation campaign to breathe new life into their neighbourhood.

Residents in the St. Monica's Road area are behind the clean-up project, which will see Government investing money to improve both the appearance of the district, as well as help to eradicate the social problems.

The St. Monica's Community Action Group, which formed about four years' ago, has enlisted the help of different agencies, including the Government Planning Department and drug and career training groups, to help them draw up proposals and collect data.

Planners have already come up with three different schemes, which have been presented to residents to provide them with some ideas of what they might like to see in their area.

Among the suggestions are better lighting, greater landscaping and tree-planting, additional housing, parks and children's playgrounds, a basketball court, open air swimming pool, road widening, new community centres, traffic calming, and the cleaning up of derelict buildings and vacant land.

And residents are to be visited by members of the agencies during the next few weeks to find out what issues they believe most need addressing.

At an action group meeting on Tuesday night at St. Monica's Mission, led by area MPs Nelson Bascome and Ottiwell Simmons, members of the group decided they would ask the Department of Works and Engineering if the main roads around the district could be re-surfaced and pavements improved as a matter of urgency, before their Community Day in mid-September.

But Mr. Simmons said the remainder of the development work may take a little longer if they were to ensure that the improvements were long-term. He said: "The objective of this coming together is to make the St. Monica's area a better and safer neighbourhood in which to live, and, perhaps where there are drug activities, they can be alleviated and disappear.

"We are going about this in a rather Martin Luther King way -- in a passive way. We are not going about it with a baton.

"We are doing it with the help of the community. This method takes longer, but it will be safer and we will be rescuing people, rather than jailing them.'' Residents decide to clean up their act But he said he had every faith that it would work.

"I believe in my heart of hearts that, with the help of the churches, different agencies and the community, we can create a new St. Monica's area and a new Bermuda,'' he added.

"We need to encourage people to raise their own standards and take pride in the area and the homes they live in.'' Residents claim the area has been going down hill for the last 25 years, largely as a result of drug abuse.

They admit that many young people living in the vicinity are involved in drug activity, but also claim that people from other areas deliberately target the district to ply their trade.

A 43-year-old man, who has lived in the area all his life and is involved in the action group, said drugs were residents' main concern.

But he added: "There are a lot of good people in St. Monica's -- people who have been here for years and are upset about the gradual decline.

"You get gangs hanging out on the streets, which can be intimidating, there is a lot of drug activity, street lights are constantly getting smashed and buildings damaged.

"What has happened is very sad, but what is happening now with the action group is something positive.

"We don't want more housing -- there is already enough -- but we want a prettier, safer place to live.

"Everyone seems to know what the problems are, but people up here have been talking about it until they were blue in the face.

"Now it seems something is happening. We need a big change, and perhaps this will do it.'' Minister Mr. Bascome said no budgets or costing had been worked out, but he hoped all the work would be completed within two years.

He added: "Government is playing its part, but it is down to the people and what they want to see happen.

"There are three planning options put forward and we are getting community feedback on those at the moment.

"But what I think will probably happen is that we take some suggestions from one and some from another.'' He said he hoped by improving the general physical appearance of the area, those people who have become disheartened would regain their pride.

"I think some people living in the area lost heart and simply gave up because of the problems, but we want them to re-capture their pride and take an interest,' he added.

"This is all about people helping themselves because improving the appearance alone will not do it.'' A Police spokesman said the St. Monica's Road area was no worse than other parts of the Island when it came to crime or drugs, but said the community action was impressive.

He added: "We applaud what they are doing. I don't know if they want Police involvement in what they are doing, but we would be quite happy to talk to them.''