Opposition Senator Bob Richards yesterday expressed grave concern that the proposed housing development at Southside would collapse and feared the winners of last week?s lottery hope?s ?are going to be dashed?.

And Sen. Richards kept on the attack when he complained that the upper house has not seen any new legislation from Government for at least three sessions and yesterday?s sitting was nearly finished after just 20 minutes, saying: ?Somebody is asleep at the wheel!?

But Progressive Labour Party Senator Walter Roban responded that Sen. Richards was misinformed, adding: ?There is money available for the (Southside) project, both privately and been arranged through public means and that?s a fact.?

Sen. Richards said he could not imagine a charity having a raffle when there was no prize.

?People buy raffle tickets and there?s no prize at the end of the night. The prize is some kind of promise to do something,? he said.

He said during the last session in Senate there was no money budgeted for the project from the private or public side.

?I don?t know where the money is going to come from to give this lady and these other people who have been built up with so much hope. I?m just so afraid that these people?s hopes are going to be dashed because of ineptitude by this Government,? he said.

Sen. Richards said there was not even an IOU and the only thing people had was some kind of big promise.

?Not one shred of concrete action as relates to this matter. Not one shred. The only thing they?ve had is talk and every attempt at action has been characterised as a total fumbling of the ball,? he said.

?What are we supposed to do, just take your word? This is the same Minister who gave his word to the people of Mary Victoria Road that he was going to consult with them and then broke his word.?

Sen. Richards said it was the same Government that has had an implicit agreement with the people of Bermuda when they went to the election in 2003 with their leader and the day after that they got a new leader.

?And one of their leaders said ?we had to lie to you? and we must take the word of these people?? he asked.

He added that he was very concerned that there were people whose hopes had been raised sky high because they had won the lottery, adding: ?I just hope to God that this lottery has some substance.?

Business concluded in the Senate after the mention of notices of motion which were brought up in the House of Assembly on Friday and the first reading of the Ministers and Members of the Legislature (Salaries and Pensions) Amendment Act 2005.

?It?s clear we?re not doing the people?s business, or is there no business?? Sen. Richards asked.

In response to Sen. Richards? comments on the lack of bills in the Senate, Attorney General Larry Mussenden said a ?raft of legislation? was coming that would probably take them up to Cup Match to work through.

PLP Senator Reginald Burrows agreed, adding that more legislation would be seen in the next two to three weeks ? so much so that more sessions might be needed to deal with it all before breaking for summer.

?This has always been customary and there?s no solution to this. This has been going on for a long time,? he said.

Sen. Burrows added that Government did make mistakes and there was no Government in the world that did not.

He said the PLP Government had continued to do a number of positive things in the past.

These included reducing the taxes for homeowners over the age of 65, no matter what the value of the property was.

He said the Government had not increased taxes to compensate for this.

Some of the other good things Government has done was improve Bermuda?s transportation, which he said was now ?second to none?.

?The Government has also created a first class facility for seniors in St. George?s,? he added.

Sen. Burrows said he realised that the Government had made some mistakes, including those at the new Senior Secondary School.

?We are not the first Government to have serious overruns on a project and we won?t be the last,? he said.