The Department of Parks has pledged to have Bermuda?s public open spaces cleaned up by the beginning of the summer tourist season.

And Opposition Senate Leader Kim Swan called on Government to recruit Island students as apprentices to help with re-planting in Bermuda?s parks during the summer.

Government Senator Neville Tyrrell told the Senate during the Budget debate on the Environment that Parks will have completed all major clearance work by the end of March. He also said that all would be ready by the beginning of the tourism season.

Six months after Hurricane Fabian, the Parks Department has made major headway into the ?mammoth task? of cleaning up destruction left by the storm, Mr. Tyrrell said.