Burcher's Point in St. David's.

Jeurgen Dale, property manager at the Mid-Ocean Club in Tucker's Town, told The Royal Gazette that after a ten-year struggle, the residents of Smith's Island still did not have their dock.

The Development Applications Board recently rejected plans for a floating jetty to be built at Burcher's Point.

"For ten years we have lobbied the Government to give us permission to build a legal dock,'' Mr. Dale said. "We know that it is not our responsibility to provide us this dock out of the taxpayers' money. We feel that the Government does have the responsibility to provide the permission to build it.

"The Works and Engineering Department is not responding to our needs. We submitted an application to build a dock at Burcher's Point through Planning.

The Ministry of Works and Engineering then asked us to submit drawings and plans for the dock. They gave us the terms and the dollar amount in order to build it. We have agreed to that. Then Works and Engineering refused our application. We are paying several attorneys to resolve the matter. We will continue to work in resolving this problem.

"They have denied us our basic human rights.'' Mr. Dale also disputed acting Planning director Peter Adwick's claim that the application still did not have the consent of the owner, Works and Engineering.

But Mr. Adwick reiterated his previous statements saying: "The application was refused because it had insufficient information that came with the application. It also did not comply with our requirements for dock construction. Everything I said in the article that ran Wednesday is correct to my knowledge.'' Mr. Dale, however, said: "Everyone should have access to public facilities.

We pay our taxes. We have invested a great deal of money in our homes on Smith's Island. We never gave up our rights as Bermudians to have access to the mainland.

"I have been fighting this for ten years now, since John Swan was the Premier. At that time he promised us that he would resolve this issue. But nothing has been done. There are a large number of islands that make up Bermuda, some are inhabited, but not all are serviced. Planning allows development of these islands, but they should not allow development without assuring access to the mainland.'' Mr. Dale recalled that there was a ferry service to Smith's Island at one point.

"However,'' he said, "the service was discontinued. Once that happened, the people were left on their own.

"The Government continues to allow people to build unauthorised docks. They tolerate a large number of illegal docks in the area.

"We want to be treated equally. We have made the choice to live on Smith's Island. We know that we will not have garbage pick-up or mail delivered, but we have the right to go to work and educate our children as Bermudians. We are not second class citizens.'' GOVERNMENT GVT