Crime is the key issue in the new district of Warwick North Central, which can be considered one of the more marginal constituencies up for grabs in the July 24 election.

Optometrist Yvette Swan, who ran and lost in the old constituency of Warwick West in 1998, will be mounting a challenge for this area, likely to be met by Bermuda Industrial Union (BIU) labour organiser George Scott for the Progressive Labour Party (PLP).

Mr. Scott is one of two labour leaders to be running for a Warwick seat, alongside BIU vice-president Chris Furbert who will be running in Warwick West, or District 28.

Encompassing a relatively small area of densely populated land, Warwick North Central represents most of the islands in Hamilton Harbour, along with a chunk of the northern part of Warwick stretching from Longford Road in the east to Tamarind Vale in the west, and bordered in the south by Middle Road.

The district is like many others in that it represents a diverse segment of the Bermudian population, but middle-class areas along Longford Road, at Warwick Park and at Hill View will offset more entrenched areas of party loyalty such as the working class area of Cedar Hill or the predominantly UBP supporting areas along Harbour Road, at Mizzentop and along Tamarind Vale.

The islands in Hamilton Harbour are dominated by the more than thirty households on Hinson's Island. They are largely white property owners who have in the past tended to vote for the UBP.

Crime figured highly on residents' list of gripes, with the issues of affordable housing and care for seniors coming also noted.

Area resident Irene Mello said: "We've had a lot of break-ins in the area. And also the area around Hayward's needs to be cleaned up. There is just lots of trash and bums tend to hang out there."

Mrs. Mello said she was unhappy with the current government because "they've been spending too much money and I'm not impressed with Premier (Jennifer Smith). She seemed very abrupt in the recent television interview she did. I'm not saying the PLP is totally bad. It is not a black and white issue, it's a party issue. As long as she is Premier though I feel sorry for the country."

But she added: "Grant Gibbons is not a premier either. He is not a people person but just a very smart man."

Other parochial issues include the state of land at the Chaplin Estate, on Harbour Road, a protection order for which Government could overturn following a Court of Appeals ruling this week in order to allow an access road to be built through it.

Mrs. Swan said yesterday: "I think that that land should be kept as woodland reserve."

Hinson's Island resident Elizabeth Morse-Brown said she would like to see the ferry come to out to the Island later in the evening, which currently runs its last service at 9.45 p.m. And she expressed puzzlement at the new electoral arrangements: "I don't understand this one person, one vote idea. I thought that we had that before. I know that I've got to go somewhere else to vote though and I was happy with the constituency which we were in before (Paget West)."

Asked which party she supported, she said: "I thought it was nice to give the PLP a chance to get in and try it out. I'm not particularly interested either way. Politics is politics."