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More ideas wanted for reclaimed land

Ideas needed: Cross Island (Photograph by Jeremy Deacon)

More than 100 suggestions have been submitted on how to use the nine acres of reclaimed land in Dockyard after the America’s Cup next year.

But the Cross Island Legacy committee — tasked with generating ideas for the future of the land — want at least another 50 before the deadline closes in less than two weeks.

Committee chairman Wayne Caines spoke earlier this week at the Chewstick Open Mic session and will do again this Sunday, appealing to young Bermudians to get involved.

“We have addressed many stakeholders, such as BEST and the Chamber of Commerce, and we have been extremely active in reaching out to people on social media,” said Mr Caines.

“However, we want to be inclusive in this process and I thought it was important to engage as many young people as possible which is why I went to Chewstick.

“We want to create a legacy that will help Bermudians for years to come.”

After the deadline for submissions, the committee members will score each idea against agreed weightings on a series of objectives.

They are:

• Economic — provides economic benefits to Bermuda

• Environmental — that it is sensitive to the environment, surrounding historical significance, and marine habitats

• Financial — that it delivers a good Return on Investment (ROI) for Bermuda

• Whether it is financially viable

• Social/Cultural — whether it is connected to Bermuda’s heritage and culture and whether it provides social benefits to Bermuda

• Structural — is it a good fit for the location, physical site, and exposure to weather and elements?

Financial is weighted 16; economic is weighted at 25; environmental 20; social and cultural is 19.5, and structural is also 19.5.

The committee will then recommend the best ideas, or the best combination of ideas, to Wedco, whose board will review and shortlist the ideas further to form part of a public RFP process. Mr Caines said he was convinced that Wedco was committed to carrying out an inclusive and transparent RFP process.

“We’re not asking for your proprietary business secrets,” he said. “The ideas we are looking for are at a high level, not necessarily hugely detailed. The detail will come with the RFP submissions. We are being as open and transparent about this process as we can be because we want to engage the community in generating ideas but we also want to see and hear discussions about those ideas.

“We want to hear what you would support — and you can see them all so far, even an idea for a brothel, on our Facebook page, ‘Cross Island’.”