It's true ? something as small as a Letter to the Editor can make a difference.

It was such a letter about the lack of wheelchair access at the Island's newest night-club, Splash, that threw a Planning oversight into the public eye.

Now the owners of the club are doing all they can to comply with Building Code regulations and make amends.

"I went to Splash about a month ago and had to be lifted over two steps," said Jeremy Drover, whose mother wrote the Letter to the Editor which ran on December 17, 2004 in .

"I was really surprised that a new club would open and there was no entrance for someone in a wheelchair."

Bathrooms at Splash ? on the second level of the club, accessed by stairs ? are also not wheelchair accessible.

"We feel horrible about it," Splash owner Simone Maranzana said this week. "If it had been picked up on in the very beginning it would have changed the whole layout of the club.

"We have no problem acknowledging it and saying, this is what we can do... Sometimes these things get overlooked. You count on other people to come forward."

Currently, Mr. Maranzana said, the best solution put forward is to allow persons with a disability to use the accessible bathrooms at Portofino's Restaurant, next door to Splash.

"All the toilets are upstairs and there is no way, physically, to put a bathroom downstairs," he explained. "It's a near impossibility.

"So the manager will have the keys to the restaurant and they will be able to escort the person over and open it up just for them. That's probably the best we can do."

Other bars and clubs, such as Blue Juice and the Pickled Onion, also lack handicapped access. However, Mr. Maranzana said: "I can see the point if it's a brand new establishment. It should be required."

The Building Code specifies that if any "extensive renovations" are carried out on a building, handicapped access is required.

"The code suggests if the renovations cover one fourth of the cost of the building" the access is required, senior building inspector Blake Lambert said this week. Accessible bathrooms, he added, should have been included at Splash.

"When the initial plans were in review, it was missed," he said. "It was something that was brought to my attention by the Assistant Director of Planning, and it was my role to research and find a way to have it rectified."

Mr. Maranzana said he expected to have some plan of action, in writing, sent to Mr. Lambert this week. If the suggestion does not meet the Planning requirements, Mr. Lambert said other steps would have to be taken.

"We give the applicant a chance to rectify the situation, and go from there," he said.

"I'm just really glad to see the letter actually had an effect," Mr. Drover said yesterday. "It's really encouraging to everyone I know with a disability.

"Bermuda is one of the least accessible countries I can think of."

In the four years since he has been in a wheelchair, Mr. Drover ? a student attending online courses at Berkeley School of Music in Boston ? said he has noticed many changes.

"But we still have a long way to go."

Reluctant to name and shame places without wheelchair access, the 24-year old added: "They know who they are."

Health Ministry Permanent Secretary Kevin Monkman will soon be discovering some of those places when he spends a day touring Hamilton in a wheelchair.

Mr. Monkman pledged to spend the day in a wheelchair at a town hall meeting for disabled persons in Bermuda last year in order to better understand the accessibility problems on the Island. The date of his adventure is being kept secret from him ? representatives from the National Office for Seniors and the Physically Challenged plan to simply show up at his office one day this month with the wheelchair.

In the meantime, Mr. Drover was happy to know that efforts are being made. "If more letters have an effect, that's very, very encouraging."