A battle has been won in staving off the loss of ten acres of the Botanical Gardens to make way for a new hospital.

But there is still some way to go before outright victory can be claimed in the safeguarding for perpetuity all Bermuda?s open spaces, including the Gardens, according to Valerie Wallace of the Save the Gardens group.

Petitions, letters, a ?wear green? day and other initiatives have all shown the impact people power can have in sending a message to the Island?s leaders about the disquiet and disapproval felt at the idea of losing part of the Botanical Gardens.

Now it is time to look at what can be done to safeguard the Botanical Gardens and the Island?s other open spaces for generations to come and how more open space can be created.

That was the message of Ms Wallace as she addressed the Rotary Club of Hamilton on the day reported that newly appointed Health Minister Nelson Bascome had pledged a replacement King Edward VII Memorial Hospital will not be built on the Botanical Gardens.

?We saved the fifth largest National Park, the largest central open space in Bermuda. Thirty-six acres that would never have recovered from having a hospital developed in its core,? said Ms Wallace. The campaign to save the Gardens attracted a wide variety of individuals and groups.

Paget resident Ms Wallace put out her own ?Green Lung of Paget? newsletter to make people aware of what was at stake.

The coalition of environmental organisations ?ECO? chaired by Stuart Hayward had become involved, while Bermuda?s Greenpeace activist Lisa Vickers set up the Save the Gardens website.

Ms Wallace paid tribute to groups who use the Gardens and had joined the campaign, to individuals who attended the public meetings, written letters and the 2,243 people who had signed petitions, and to the countless many who wore items of green clothing on Green Day.

She said: ?We have learnt that Bermudians can mount an effective non-political campaign if they care about something, and they do care a great deal about open space.

?But we have also learned that none of our National Parks, although protected by legislation, are really safe at all.?

So where does the campaign to Save the Gardens go following Health Minister Mr. Bascome?s announcement? Ms Wallace pointed to a five-year-old study she had prepared as a consultant to the Government from 2000 to 2001 that covered open spaces but, to her knowledge, has never seen the light of day.

In the report she argued that Bermuda?s open spaces should be more strictly protected within the Bermuda Plan so as to be protected from development over time. According to Ms Wallace some 94 percent of the 2,500 Bermudians quizzed felt strongly that no more open space should be lost to development.

Ms Wallace said: ?The way to make our parks really safe is to make it law that a three-quarters majority of both the House and the Senate have to approve before you can take anything out of the Parks system.?

And she sees benefits from adopting a land bank idea similar to those that operate in places like Martha?s Vineyard and Nantucket. ?Let?s pass that law and get that Land Bank set up. You see in saving the Gardens that?s all we did ? save them. All we did was prevent a loss of open space and we need to set aside more chunks of land, not go for the status quo.?

Thanking all those who had helped in the fight to Save the Gardens she said: ?We need to take this one step further. We need to demand Government make the Botanical Gardens inalienable so we never have to go through this again.

?The first ten acres of the Gardens were the original public gardens dating from 1898. Do you think we know more than those folks then??

Ms Wallace also works for the National Trust said the only way to preserve open space was for land to be put in the care of the National Trust and the Audubon Society of the Zoological Society.

?Demand better legislation for National Parks and other undeveloped lands. There?s no time like the present with a new Bermuda Plan being hatched right now,? said Ms Wallace.