Sustainable development has been a catch-phrase in Bermuda for some time now and while there has been some hype as to what it?s all about, members of the public will soon have the opportunity to find out first-hand what plans are underway for the Island?s future.

They will also have the opportunity to have their say.

A project team has been meeting with the public for the last few weeks gathering information for a future sustainable development action plan.

Ross Andrews, who is co-ordinating the project, was recruited by the Government from the UK where he was part of a central polity unit working on global sustainable development.

Other members of the team include Erica Smith from the Ministry of the Environment, Melinda Williams from the Department of Statistics, Charles Clarke from the Ministry of Tourism and Transport and Leila Wadson, who is a junior policy analyst. The team aims to have a sustainable development strategy and action plan in place later this year, but it?s been hard work collecting all the necessary information. ?You can?t just tell the Bermuda public ?this is what you have to do?, you need to find out what they?re prepared to do and go from there,? Mr. Andrews said.

This meant meeting with people from every sector of society from the homeless, to prisoners at Westgate and even students at local schools. It?s a challenge the project team has embraced. He said the strategy was creating a framework for decision making ? a vision of Bermuda in the future. Most Bermudians, he said, did not feel part of Bermuda?s success, especially when it came to issues like housing and transport.

On the subject of traffic congestion, Mr. Andrews said cars on the road were increasing by 40 vehicles a month and how Bermudians ?got around? was one of the issues that needed to be addressed.