offenders home at Tudor Farm in Southampton.

"Surely, somewhere, there must be a facility that is more readily capable of being utilised,'' said Mr. David Dodwell, United Bermuda Party MP for Southampton West.

Government wants a secure facility to house 16 or more boys and girls between the ages of nine and 16. Schooling and counselling would be provided, along with farm work.

Mr. Dodwell added his voice to those of numerous farmers and neighbours who oppose the plan. Notice of Government's proposal to the Development Applications Board was advertised in The Royal Gazette on Monday.

The notice allowed 14 days for objections, but the Gazette has already received several Letters to the Editor from opponents who want the 10.6-acre site left for farming.

Nearby resident Mr. Raymond Madeiros said it was ridiculous for Government to call the facility a "residential care home for children'' in its application to rezone the land near Port Royal Golf Course from open space.

To read the notice, "it sounds like they're going to put a kids' nursery over there'', Mr. Madeiros said. "We're not renters. We own our homes, we own a piece of the rock.

"Now that piece of the rock is not going to be worth anything, because who wants a jail in their backyard? And that's exactly what it is.'' Neighbours are also concerned about their safety, he said.

Mr. Madeiros said neighbours had the support of both Mr. Dodwell and Youth and Sport Minister the Hon. Pamela Gordon, the other Southampton West MP. Ms Gordon could not be reached for comment yesterday.

At a United Bermuda Party conference on the weekend, Health and Social Services Minister the Hon. Quinton Edness said he hoped the new facility would be ready to open by spring, although Works Minister the Hon. Leonard Gibbons said "that may be a little optimistic''.

"We've got to get Planning permission,'' Mr. Edness told the crowd at the Southampton Princess. "Let's ask (Environment Minister the Hon.) Gerald Simons if it's going to be held up in any way.'' Sen. Simons was also in the hotel amphitheatre but did not reply to the apparently lighthearted remark from Mr. Edness.

Mr. Madeiros said: "Planning shouldn't even entertain the application.'' He said that if he wanted to build on land zoned as open space, he would "be turned down flat''.

He asked if there would be a barbed wire fence around the home that visitors could see, adding that the youths could be housed at the US Naval Annex, or at HMS Malabar If the youths were at Dockyard, they would only be a stone's throw from the Westgate Correctional Facility and would have access to the prisoners' carpentry and other shops. That would be more practical, he said. "Are these kids going to leave there and take up farming?'' Mr. Dodwell said the issue was a difficult one, because nobody was opposed to having a home for troubled youth.

"My concern is the site that has been chosen, both from the residents' standpoint, and also from the standpoint of the farmland that exists on that property.'' While the proposal calls for the land to continue to be farmed in some way, at least some of the farmland would be lost, he said.

And it would be costly to renovate existing buildings and add two new buildings, as proposed.

The Government kennels were also on the land, Mr. Dodwell said. Would they have to be moved, adding further to the cost? Mr. Dodwell said he had received "numerous calls'' from constituents, and not only those who bordered Tudor Farm. "They're very vocal and extremely concerned,'' he said.

Government bought the land in the late 1980s, reportedly because it wanted to preserve one of the last large tracts of farmland, Mr. Dodwell said. And the Department of Agriculture & Fisheries had planned to put a model farm on the site.

The property has been leased to farmer Mr. Peter Exell for the last 13 years.