Government has published its plans to revert Northlands Secondary to a primary school.

In a notice in the Official Gazette on Friday, the Ministry of Works and Engineering said it had applied to the Development Applications Board to build a bridge and carry out other additions and renovations at the school on Berkeley Road in Pembroke.

The bridge will allow primary school students to travel from the school to the field across the street without encountering traffic on Berkeley Road.

Works and Engineering Minister Leonard Gibbons was off the Island on Friday and unavailable for comment.

But Facilities Coordinator for the Implementation Team at the Education Department Bob Winters said the bridge -- which has to be completed by September, 1997 when Northlands is scheduled to re-open as a primary school -- was in the preliminary drawing stages.

Mr. Winters noted that plans for Northlands also included adding on some new bathrooms, converting science rooms, and enlarging the playing field across from the school.

Anyone wishing to object to the plans has 14 days.

Over the past year, Dellwood parents have opposed Government plans to put primary school students at Northlands.

They have argued that Northlands, which was condemned as a primary school in the 1960s and deemed worth closing by Government consultants, was dangerous for primary school students.

Parents have also expressed fears that the current Dellwood site on Angle Street -- which Government has scheduled to turn into a middle school for 11 to 14-year-olds -- will become "a prime market for drug dealers''.

And they presented several options, including that Government revert to its original plan to set up the central middle school at the old Technical Institute site at Roberts Avenue in Devonshire.

But Government rejected the options, arguing that setting up a middle school at Dellwood was the most "sound'' and cost-efficient option.

Education Minister Jerome Dill -- in a letter written last December to the PTA -- said: "Government has a responsibility to make decisions. You can appreciate that there are times when those decisions are difficult and perhaps unpopular.

"However, we have listened to parents and this decision, although not in agreement with your conclusion, is in the best interest of children and of the programme for the restructuring of the education system as a whole.'' When contacted on Friday, Dellwood PTA president Shirlene Simmons said she had not yet seen the drawings for proposed changes and preferred to reserve comment until after the PTA executive had met.