Hill and South Shore Road keeps appearing in the news. We suspect that the complaints and the controversy are just beginning. It was, of course, silly to allow a small roadside community to develop without an overall plan but it seems to be typical of the way we have failed to protect the character of our Island and allowed Bermuda to "just grow''.

If Bermuda wanted the kind of rural commercial area which is now so popular in North America it should have planned one. What we have at Collector's Hill appears to have grown by accident around a country grocery store and a church.

In fact, if we had developed a sensible plan, we could have found a much better place for a "village'' than the junction of two busy roads.

As a result of a lack of forward thinking, we now have an inconvenient and dangerous traffic problem which we appear to be unwilling to solve because we are unwilling to take unpopular steps to face it properly. As a result, there are angry residents and angry road users.

The decision which was supposed to solve the traffic problem by parking most of the cars at the rear of the buildings, does not work well because the public abuses the system. Instead of the slight inconvenience of driving to the rear to park, some members of the public follow the Bermudian tradition of parking illegally at the sidewalk, beside the yellow line, and running into the shops to do their business. It is hard to fault people who do this and difficult to insist that people should not abuse the system since a precedent was set when one business was made exempt thus nullifying the whole concept.

As a result, we still have a dangerous road situation and traffic obstruction which needs to be solved.

However, there is a second problem. We also have a growing and unsightly development at Collector's Hill. If we had planned this area as a "village'' it could have been attractive and in the Bermudian character. Instead, what we have is a poorly situated and characterless collection of generally ugly buildings which are poorly served by the road system. In other words, a classic example of bad planning.

The usage of the area is poorly arranged. The design of the buildings is generally drab, utilitarian box and has destroyed the charm of the church on the corner. All the buildings are badly located from a passing traffic and parking point of view. The collection of buildings creates a dangerous stretch of road. The whole mess was unnecessary because with the smallest amount of care and a minimum amount of thought we could have had a useful and sensibly arranged area with some charm.

We can still make an effort to sort the area out. There should be no further building until the traffic dangers have been solved. That may well involve a major project. We have allowed such chaos to develop that it may, in fact, be necessary to move Collector's Hill. We must have an overall plan for the area if its commercial use is to expand. It should also be possible to impose some style and character on the area especially if there are going to be more buildings.