ask the public for ideas on future uses of the military base lands.

Mr. Eugene Cox MP, who is chairman of the party's Base Property Utilisation Sub-Committee, said getting information from Government on bases issues was like "pulling teeth''.

"There is no free-flow of information,'' he said. "It's very difficult.'' The PLP yesterday published a box ad in The Royal Gazette inviting the public to submit proposals so it can "make informed decisions in support of, or against, proposed uses of these lands''.

The ad also said the committee would be pleased to receive copies of proposals already submitted to the Government.

Mr. Cox said the PLP wanted to avoid not seeing any feasible proposal on uses of the base lands.

"Anyone out there who has an idea or proposal that's reasonable and constructive should make it known to us,'' he said.

"If people do this then when we sit down to do our brainstorming on the base lands we'll have a good spread of ideas and suggestions.

"We can't depend on Government to pass on information. It's not being done so far. We would like all the information available to the Government to come to the Opposition. We are the people's representatives too.'' Mr. Cox said the PLP would like to conduct its own assessment on the base lands so as to put "our own perspective on it''.

"We want to understand the situation and have the kind of information to make decisions in the best interest of Bermuda.'' The Government's base utilisation committee has already supplied the PLP with its inventory of bases buildings. But Mr. Cox said the listings were inadequate because they didn't specify the uses or histories of the buildings.

"If we had to research that, I'd be spending my whole time at the base,'' he said. "Getting better information and more ideas will help us become better critics. When the matter comes before the House, we want to debate issues -- not waste everyone's time by asking questions.'' Mr. Cox said the party decided to appeal to the public two to three weeks ago.

He said he wanted to submit a report on the committee's work to Party leader Mr. Frederick Wade before the opening of Parliament on November 4.

Mr. Eugene Cox