exploration institute on East Broadway and has no plans to withdraw its objection.

Members were still against the project despite several changes being made to the proposed development, Trust director Ms Amanda Outerbridge said yesterday.

A revised set of plans for the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute was submitted to the Planning Department last week.

Developers urged Planners to send the plans on to the Development Applications Board for approval, saying they believed they had addressed all the Trust's objections.

But Ms Outerbridge said hardly any of the Trust's concerns had been met in the latest set of plans.

Environmental Officer Miss Toby Butterfield was in the process of drafting a new objection, she said.

"Our grounds of objection remain extremely similar to our original ones,'' Ms Outerbridge said.

The Trust "as a rule'' was opposed to any major foreshore encroachment, she said, because it "radically changed the topography of the seabed and coastline''.

BUEI developers had scrapped plans to encroach on the foreshore of the Trust's Pembroke Hall property.

But they still planned to encroach on about 3,000-4,000 square feet of the foreshore in front of the Butterfield property.

Ms Outerbridge said the Trust also remained concerned about the height and massing of the proposed hi-tech entertainment and educational complex.

Merely dropping the height of its highest point by four feet was not enough, she said.

Developers have also moved the institute completely off the Pembroke Hall property -- in a previous revision of the plans presented to Planning last December.

Plans to connect Pembroke Hall and the BUEI with a landscaping feature were dropped. Plans for a terrace and outdoor seating in front of Pembroke Hall were also changed.

But Ms. Outerbridge said: "You don't usually go around building in someone else's garden.'' She pointed out Planners had supported the Trust in not wanting any part of the development on the Pembroke Hall property.

BUEI developers said in a cover letter they had hoped to work with the Trust in developing the area's waterfront to provide "a rich pedestrian area''.

But the Trust would not back down over its objections. In a cover letter accompanying the latest revision, trustees said, "We believe this charitable project has been exhaustingly vetted for technical compliance and will receive overwhelming support from the board.'' BUEI developers, or trustees, include Mr. David Lines, Finance Minister the Hon. David Saul and veteran diver Mr. Teddy Tucker, said they had reduced overall square footage of the institute by 35-percent.

The Butterfield property where they plan to build the BUEI is owned by Fidnat.

Fidnat is a partnership between a sister company to Bermuda's Fidelity International, which rents Pembroke Hall, and the National Trust Endowment Company, which is separate from the Trust's ruling body.