a new slum on the Island.

Instead Government must look at industrial and port uses for the US Naval Air Station and the Annex, according to the Mr. John R.H. (Jack) Lightbourn. Mr.

Lightbourn chaired the objections tribunal into the Bermuda Plan 1992 and the results were made public over the weekend after a year of deliberations.

Earlier this year planning officers took advantage of the news of the base closures to stress the glut of housing on the Island, stating that base houses would soon become available putting hundreds of properties on the market.

But Mr. Lightbourn never saw the houses in St. George's as additions to the Island's housing needs. He said: "They are not built like Bermudian homes.

They may be good for just another 10 years or so.

"People will live anywhere if they cannot afford to go anywhere else but this should not be long term, otherwise it will become our next slum.'' Mr. Lightbourn believes the air station will be used commercially as few people will want to live near to an Airport. He says there is some room for a mixture of industrial and housing uses on the Annex.

But he warned that clashes between the public and businessmen will eventually result in the setting up of industrial parks on the Island.

Industrial parks are a feature in many countries throughout the world where business and commerce is concentrated in an area, often away from town centres and areas of high population density.

Mr. Lightbourn said: "The whole idea of industrial parks is a new thing.

When Government takes over the bases they should give serious consideration to this.

"Human nature being what it is, neighbours of industrial premises will apply pressure on Government to remove the industry if it is disturbing them.

Industrial parks are going to be necessary in the future.'' He also sees the need for a ports authority to be set up using the bases, the return of which will be a major boost to the Island.

He said: "It means we have an excellent opportunity for a future docks and it will mean an opportunity to get some of the stuff off Front Street.

"We are almost certainly going to need a ports authority if we are going to take advantage of the docking areas. The Annex is probably the area offering the broadest opportunities for commercial and private usage.'' Mr. Lightbourn headed the Objections Tribunal which originally faced 1,100 objections into the Plan. Many were resolved and eventually they had to make decisions on more than 400.

He said the tribunal's job was made simpler with the help of planning officers and agents representing the objectors.

But the task was still a formidable one after earlier plans had set a few traps for the present plan.

Mr. Lightbourn said: "One of the things I did find difficult was that when we first started the zonings, 20 years ago, there were cases where Government had arbitrarily taken substantial portions of property. This was fundamentally wrong.

"We viewed at least seven properties where almost a half of the zoning would have made it impossible to do anything on the land. It is wrong to do it to that extent.'' Government, he said, should have looked at which green areas they wanted to keep and then bought the areas from landowners.

But he stressed that the only way to stop development on the Island was to introduce a strict form of birth control, he said: "If the population is growing then we cannot say that people should stop building new homes.

"Even so people are still going to want to build where they like and not where somebody else wants them to build.'' And unlike many people who see Bermuda as overdeveloped already, Mr.

Lightbourn says the Island has many beautiful spots after seeing most of them on site visits to every one of the objection areas.

Mr. Lightbourn says the whole tribunal process was one of the most challenging jobs he has ever undertaken and he hopes people will have seen their decisions as fair. He said: "We decided that we would work three and a half days a week from 8.30 a.m. to 12.30 p.m.. We thought it only fair to visit each site.

"Often we would make a decision during a recess in the hearing, and periodically we would take a brief overview to make sure we were consistent throughout the whole exercise. In the majority of cases we made a decision there and then and 85 percent of the cases we were unanimous.'' Mr. Lightbourn had praise for Ms Tanya Stafford from the Planning Department who worked as administrator to the tribunal.

But he also praised planning officers, estate agents and architects who spoke at the tribunal. He said: "Unlike lawyers who tend to like to hear the sound of their own voices, the majority of people were able to give clear and concise arguments.''