plates next year.

MPs yesterday approved a bill to allow drivers to buy their own licence plates from the Transport Control Department (TCD) for $70.

The new plates, which will be smaller than existing plates, will contain up to six characters.

TCD will vet applications to screen rude or suggestive plates.

The plates will have the words `Bermuda' on top and `Another World' on the bottom, with a map of the Island in the background.

Transport Minister Dr. Ewart Brown said: "We are consistently looking at creative ways of raising revenue without burdening the tax-payer. Vanity plates would serve that aim.'' Dr. Brown said if 2,500 people applied for the plates, it would generate at least $125,000 by 2004.

Shadow Finance Minister Grant Gibbons of the United Bermuda Party, which supported the bill, said Government could have raised more than $70 for each plate.