of the Environment's right to reverse decisions of the Development Application Board -- will go a long way in clarifying Bermuda's 1974 Development and Planning Act, a lawyer and an architect agree.

Crown counsel Wilhelm Bourne, who successfully appealed against a Bermuda Supreme Court decision which -- in turn -- had struck down former Minister of the Environment Gerald Simon's decision to overrule the DAB, said the Privy Council decision has once and for all clarified the Minister's discretionary powers.

The landmark ruling was sparked when Woodbourne Avenue homeowner David Barber challenged the Minister's right to reverse a DAB ruling and grant ACE Insurance permission to build an extention onto their Pitt's Bay Road headquarters, an addition he argued, that blocked his harbour view.

In a decision made public on June 9, the Privy Council upheld the Minister's powers under various sections of the 1974 planning act but in particular under section 57 of the act.

"This is a very important decision for Bermuda. It has clarified the law as to what a Minister may do and whether he may depart from the planning act.

Before the Minister's powers had been set out, but they had never been tested.'' St. George's-based architect Stan Kennedy agreed, saying the act now backed by the Privy Council decision, is quite explicit in laying out the Minister's power.

Both men, however, point out the 1974 planning act does not give the Minister carte blanche to reverse DAB decisions. He must act according to the facts of each particular case: Under the section 57 (7) of the Act said Mr. Bourne, the Minister must base his decision with "regard to the provisions of the development plan for the area where the land in question is situated, in so far as those provisions are material to the development of that land...'' How this decision will affect similar cases -- such as surrounding the development of Ship's Hill and brought by Mr. Ian MacDonald-Smith on behalf of the environmental group SOS -- remains to be seen said Mr. Bourne.

That case is scheduled to go before the Courts on September 2 and each case, said Mr. Bourne, is going to turn on its own particular facts.

Mr. MacDonald-Smith was unavailable for comment; meanwhile the National Trust's legal advisor, Mr. Tim Marshall, had not yet read the Privy Council decision and could not comment on it.

ENVIRONMENT ENV PLANNING PLN