A full-page advertisement has been taken out by the Garden Club of Bermuda in today?s urging residents to take action to save ten acres of the Botanical Gardens earmarked for the building of a replacement to the ageing King Edward VII Memorial Hospital.

But the alternative of reconstructing the hospital at its present site is viewed as being filled with impracticalities by former hospital employee Ed Ball, general secretary of Bermuda Public Service Union.

The Garden Club is calling on opponents to the Botanical Gardens scheme to contact their MP, speak to talk shows and write letters to newspapers to highlight the strength of public feeling.

Garden Club president Janet Owner said: ?We hear so much about concrete jungles and the anger these cause people. The Club supported a ?Learning Through Landscape? programme at schools last year and children said they did not have open spaces to play.

?It never ceases to amaze me the number of people and groups who make use of the Gardens. The Government needs to listen to the people.?

However, Mr. Ball warned of potential problems associated with the alternative option of rebuilding the hospital on its present site. He has past experience of the noise, vibration and dust caused when new buildings were erected at the KEMH.

?There is hammering, erecting of steel, noise, inconvenience and dust. No matter how you screen off an area, the dust gets in. I worked in the hospital during those days,? he said.

?The (hospital) equipment was not as sophisticated as now and Health and Safety regulations were not in place. The biggest concern is going to be keeping germs out.

?And where would we move the extended care unit? There is no other place in Bermuda that takes ?retirees? who need extended care. There are a lot of things that need to be looked at. If the Arboretum was used instead, there would need to be road widening.?

He said other possible sites might be to build on the hospital?s existing car parks or at the Mid Atlantic Wellness Institute.

Environmentalist Stuart Hayward said: ?It?s clear from the current situation that there?s an expectation for full consultation ? not just meetings here and there.

?It?s a good thing we are engaging in a consultation process and it must be adequate for what is the most costly and important project for the Island.?