Democracy is the reason a cement boss fought against what he and his fellow directors saw as the unreasonable hurdles put in their path by a Government quango.

Cement company chief Jim Butterfield has spoken out to give the other side of the story to the cement supply dust-up with the firm?s Government quango landlord the West End Development Company (Wedco).

He believes there is ?political, social and financial engineering? going on which has resulted in his company being squeezed out of the Island?s cement business. In the end the demands of Wedco proved too much and the Bermuda Cement Company decided to cut its losses by pulling out of an arrangement to create a new cement terminal at Dockyard.

The curtain comes down on the company?s 40-year cement business this December 31 when it ceases its cement supply operation.

At the heart of the matter was a requirement that would have ended the company?s right to operate at Dockyard if an unavoidable shifting of share ownership had occurred on the open stock market.

That, together with a requirement to pay all the costs for cleaning up a new redevelopment site and demolish its existing cement silos, proved a hurdle too far.

As reported in last week a deal between the Dockyard site landlord Wedco and international cement giant Cemex will see the two jointly take over the cement silos for up to two years while bids are considered for a full-time operator.

That wasn?t the way things were meant to pan out back in January when the cement firm reached an agreement with Wedco designed to take the Island?s main cement supply business into the 2020s. For Bermuda it would have meant demolition of the current twin 100ft high silos at Dockyard ? which some consider an eyesore ? and the redevelopment of a site 500ft away at South Basin with three aesthetically acceptable dome-shaped silos about half as tall as the old silos.

It was a project that would cost between $5 million and $7 million.

There were other riders to that January deal, including opening up 20 percent of all shares in the company to the general public through the Bermuda Stock Exchange and an increase in rent to either $100,000 or 2.5 percent of all sales, and the turning over of financial statements to Wedco each year.

In return Bermuda Cement Company would be granted a 20-year lease to continue to operate at Dockyard.

Between January and May this year the company spent at least $112,000 on legal fees and architectural plans for the new plant.

But then came the crunch, according to Mr. Butterfield, when the draft agreement landed at his office in May. The small print detail set alarm bells ringing.

?In January we had an agreement in principle, but the public was being told that it was a done deal ? it wasn?t. When we got the first draft in May it was unbelievable. No one could agree to that,? said Mr. Butterfield.

Twenty percent of shares in the company had to be sold to the general public on the Bermuda Stock Exchange. The cement company had planned to sell shares to employees and individuals with a vested interest in the cement industry.

Now it was being asked to sign an agreement that meant any fluctuation in the 20 percent of shares held by the public would ? after 30 days ? lead to the entire lease being terminated.

?We would forfeit the company if the public shareholding on the stock exchange dropped below 20 percent,? said Mr. Butterfield.

And it became apparent the company was being asked to shoulder the whole cost of cleaning up the proposed new site and demolishing the old silo terminal.

With average annual profits of around $500,000 the deal was now uneconomical in the eyes of Mr. Butterfield and his fellow directors.

Fellow Bermuda Cement Company director Stella Winstanley said: ?We said we were getting uncomfortable because it?s not looking good and we asked if we could meet them every two weeks but they said they were happy with how things were going.?

When the company saw estimates for the cost of cleaning up the new South Basin site, which had formerly been used by the British Royal Navy, before it could even start construction of the new facility, it realised the deal had tipped beyond the point of being economically viable.

By August the company said it needed to restructure the deal. Even then, the bigger plan might have been possible if the promised lease was extended to 30 years rather than 20, according to Mr. Butterfield. But Wedco was by now dealing with the cement company only through its lawyers.

Last week Wedco chairman Lt. Col. David Burch announced an interim plan to run the cement terminal in partnership with Cemex from January.

Mr. Butterfield said: ?Wedco is not playing the role of landlord ? they are acting like a supreme power over the directors requiring Bermuda Cement company to report to them. This is not the normal role of a landlord and that?s why we feel there is a political, social and financial engineering going on.

?We are talking about the democratic process and that?s what is making me fight back.?

How far that fight will take Mr. Butterfield is unclear. According to Wedco there are seven parties interested in running the Island?s main cement supply terminal ? the Bermuda Cement Company says it has not been approached to put in a renewed bid.