Robert Horton, the Permanent Secretary of Works and Engineering, deserves credit for suspending work last week on excavations for a car park to be built on the gardens of the Premier's former official residence for the next door US Consulate General.

But he is virtually the only Government official who can come out of this sordid episode with any credit whatsoever.

It is true that access to the US Consulate on Middle Road in Devonshire is inconvenient, since most visitors must now park in the Arboretum parking lot and walk. That in turn means that actual users of the Arboretum are inconvenienced as well as most parking spaces are now taken up. The situation has been much worse since the US Government built a security gate on the property.

Government has also stated that parts of Middle Road between Montpelier Road and the Consulate are dangerous because there is no sidewalk.

But it is a sign of remarkable hubris that the Government, which rushed the plans through Planning over the Cup Match holiday, would surrender some of the land at Clifton for a parking lot and start building it.

Only the protests of residents have brought the work to a halt, at least for now.

This is just the latest turn in the comedy of errors that has surrounded Clifton since it stopped being the Chief Justice's residence and became the Premier's official residence under former Premier Alex Scott.

The Cabinet agreed then that Bermuda's Premier should have a residence that befitted the role and renovations were gotten underway. These were finally completed, at a cost to the taxpayer of $1.5 million, and Mr. Scott took up residence. His stay was all too brief as he was soon ousted by Premier Dr. Ewart Brown, who decided he wanted to remain in his private home.

Clifton has been empty since, despite not very energetic efforts to rent the home in the private sector. It is the greatest symbol of Government's failure to deal with the Island's housing problem.

Now 300 square feet of the house's quite extensive gardens have been made available to the US Consulate. The planning application was approved in a near-record six working days.

Readers will recall that the use of Clifton in some form was actually discussed by Dr. Brown when he met with President George W. Bush earlier this year. That seemed strange at the time, and stranger still is the vision of the two leaders huddling over a plan for parking spaces. But anything is possible, and certainly both leaders have shown little heed for due process in the past.

But the real question is why should Bermuda provide land – once considered to be critical for the dignity of the Premier – to the US Government, which is really paying for its own short-sightedness? At one time the Consulate General was located in an office building in Hamilton. This was considered to be a safety risk, so Crown Hill was bought and converted. Some years later in a fit of budget-cutting, the US Consul General's capacious residence of Chelston was sold, turning the Consul Generals into tenants in one of the most overheated housing markets in the world.

Now, because the US Consulate failed to anticipate its parking needs, the Bermuda Government is giving up some of its own land, apparently because of the Bermuda Government's failure to provide sidewalks.

Of course, an absence of parking and sidewalks is quite common throughout Bermuda. Government should be aware that when it decides that "the safety of pedestrians in the environs of 'Crown Hill' is of paramount importance", that it is setting a precedent throughout the Island.

Don't be surprised if business owners now start seeking "alternative parking" arrangements from Government elsewhere. But it would be a surprise if such an idea was greeted as amicably and approved as fast as this plan was.