fter three years in the political wilderness Dennis Lister is glad to be back in Cabinet.

Left out of Government when Alex Scott replaced Jennifer Smith as Premier, Mr. Lister was appointed Works and Engineering Minister under new Premier Ewart Brown.

Now the Berkeley saga has died down and the Housing component has been moved from the ministry it seems a much less controversial brief.

But Mr. Lister, who had spells at Sport and Environment, knows in Government the next crisis could be just around the corner.

Nonetheless he is happy to return to the hot seat.

?I love to be on the front bench, involved in the Cabinet and policy making process so I am glad to be back.?

Under his watch is the 250-acre largely disused Morgan?s Point but he said he favoured taking a slow approach on any development.

?We need to make sure what goes in there fits the true need of Bermuda tomorrow, not today but long term down the road.

?It is the last large open space we have for development.

?To sit here right now and say what that will look like ? I couldn?t do that right now.?

He said environmental issues and development issues needed to be separated.

Previous approaches had been for any potential developer to be saddled with clean up costs which had lead to nothing being done.

Remediation estimates have varied with a 2002 study putting it at $30 million.

?It?s in our interests the site is clean ? in Bermuda?s interests.

?Our concerns should say, let?s address it, let?s clean it up, regardless of any development.?

Asked about the large bill Government would incur for fixing the environmental damage Mr. Lister said: ?It?s is not necessarily saying we will have a large bill.

?Let?s have the discussion to see the best way to approach it.

?Maybe there is a partner out there who can help absorb some of the costs.?

And in order not to taint the debate he refused to say what sort of development he wanted there.

Mr. Lister said there was no firm plan on when the long-promised Pembroke Park would be completed. Currently the site is used for taking horticultural waste.

Work on the peripheries and the marsh has been done while it?s hoped the patch of land known as the Dessert will be leased out again for sporting use this year after it was needed for overflow for Hurricane Fabian debris.

But a new site for compost needs to be found with part of Morgan?s Point being just one option. ?We are looking up and down the island for locations.?

The Ministry said food waste and animal carcasses are laid out to rot down over months but new machinery would help break them down much quicker and require less space.

The equipment would also allow the compost ? now given away free ? to be cleared of all debris and be sold.

However the machinery has not been a priority in budgets although it is back on the wish list this time around.

?We haven?t walked away but it?s just other things take precedence,? said Mr. Lister.