Green campaigners have criticised the election platforms of both parties, saying they gave "little assurance" that Bermuda's opn spaces would be preserved.

The Bermuda Environmental and Sustainability Taskforce (BEST) singled out the governing Progressive Labour Party for having an "environmentally unfriendly" platform.

BEST chairman Stuart Hayward said: "The Bermuda Environmental and Sustainability Taskforce alerts Bermudians that the election platforms contain little assurance that Bermuda's dwindling open spaces will be preserved for future generations.

"While the UBP platform is more environmentally-friendly, containing language to support the preservation of open space, it is the PLP that has formed recent Government policy and whose environmentally-unfriendly platform must get most of our attention.

"Despite the PLP Minister of Labour and Immigration's (Derrick Burgess) most recent statement (The Royal Gazette, December 15) that 'we have very little land left', preservation of our precious open spaces is conspicuously absent from the PLP's platform. Despite the knowledge that 'an area the size of Ferry Reach Park is lost to development every three years,' (draft Sustainable Development Strategy and Implementation Plan) there is no substantive commitment to protecting open space.

"While the PLP's platform lists nine objectives under the heading 'Environment', four deal directly with the fishing industry (and we must note that long line fishing has proven to be environmentally unsound); and the remaining five focus on 'encouraging', 'monitoring' and 'reviewing', not performing.

"Preservation or protection of open spaces isn't even mentioned.

"This flies in the face of the expressed desire of Bermudians to protect Bermuda's remaining open spaces, as evidenced by two successful, community-initiated and supported campaigns to save the Botanical Gardens and 'Southlands', as well as voters' direct appeals to their elected representatives."

Mr. Hayward said: "Despite the signing of the Environmental Charter, the establishment of the Sustainable Development initiative, an ambiguous Millennium Platform (which promises to 'commission' a plan and 'introduce' measures), and promises of 'deepening democracy', the PLP's 2007 platform is unconvincing and fails to provide the assurance to the Bermuda electorate that it has a plan, or even the intention to preserve the few remaining open spaces in Bermuda, or to protect other aspects of the environment for the benefit and health of current and future generations."