Hurricane-hit Clearwater Park should be open next week with Ferry Point Park set to follow as Government staff work overtime to get open spaces accessible after Fabian.

Department of Parks Senior Superintendent Martin Brown said the clean-up was 80 percent complete and he appealed for the public to have patience.

He said: "We get complaints about this or that park but they never consider the volume of work.

"The staff have worked brilliantly together over the last four or five months and have achieved an awful lot.

"They are now working seven days a week. Clearwater park is one of the last ? it should open probably by next week.

"Ferry Point park is still closed. It will be a week or two before we are able to take the closed sign off."

He said Blue Hole Park, Walsingham Park and Spittal Pond Park and Nature Reserve still needed work but it needed co-operation with other bodies including the Audubon Society and the National Trust.

Mr. Brown said the public were using the closed public section of Spittal Pond Park and risked being hit by bent branches when they snap after drying.

Holes caused by removed roots also created a hazard said Mr. Brown.

"There's a potential risk of people falling in."

Bagged-up debris still litters the Railway Trail but will be gone in time for the tourist and picnic season promised Mr. Brown.

"The only other problems which will take longer than the April/May deadline is reinstating the foreshore at John Smith Bay, Warwick Long Bay and Church Bay."

The key was to put in natural looking bolder barriers to protect against future storms said Mr. Brown. Exposed vegetation roots at beaches such as Horseshoe Bay have attracted criticism but Mr Brown said removing them would further expose them to erosion.