All planning applications are now being advertised once a week in the Official Gazette.

Yesterday Environment Minister Irving Pearman said: "Members of the public should no longer expect to see `Notices of Intention to Develop Land' appearing in local newspapers.

"Under the new procedure, a complete list of all applications received in the previous week will appear every Friday in The Bermuda Sun.'' The move comes after the Department of Planning assumed responsibility for advertising the applications instead of the applicants doing it as they had done over the last 20 years.

"It was a relatively costly procedure for the applicant,' said Mr. Pearman.

" For the community, it tended to be a confusing process in so far as only a small proportion of the applications received by the Department of Planning were advertised, on any weekday, in any one of three newspapers, plus the Official Gazette.' The purpose of advertising applications is to alert residents to proposed development, give them an opportunity to review drawings submitted to the department and submit objections within 14 days of the list appearing.

Mr. Pearman said the new procedure had additional benefits.

"It avoids the confusion, conflicts and delays which often occurred when planners and architects disagreed about which applications needed to be advertised.

"Applicants no longer have to incur the cost of advertising and, most importantly, the community knows where to look every week to get details of the planning applications in the pipeline.''