Barnes Corner.

Instead, Mr. Bromby, who holds down a full-time job as a Customs Officer, has secured a new site for his Saturday sale of garden equipment at a vacant lot, west of Giant Foods store on Middle Road in Warwick.

The Ministry of Works and Engineering instructed Mr. Bromby that he would be prosecuted if he did not move from the lawn at the Barnes Corner junction, where he has become a familiar sight on Saturdays for the past three years.

"The Government sent me a registered letter telling me if I did not leave the site within a month, I would be prosecuted.

"There are other vendors on this site selling hats, fish, vegetable and snowballs who have not been asked to leave. It seems that various hardware businesses lobbied Government and pressured Government into doing something about me. Now they have got rid of me,'' said Mr. Bromby.

Several local hardware retailers -- SAL, Lightbourne Brothers Hardware and Gorham's Home Centre -- all denied lobbying to move Mr. Bromby from his site.

A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Works and Engineering said a letter was sent to Mr. Bromby on June 28 ordering him to leave the Barnes Corner site by July 31 or prepare for prosecution for trepassing.

Apparently, Mr. Bromby had claimed the former Minister for the Environment the Hon. Mrs Ann Cartwright DeCouto had given him permission to trade on the Government-owned property -- a claim that was later refuted by Government.

The spokeswoman said she had not received any complaints from hardware companies, but had taken the initiative to remove Mr. Bromby herself.

"The Ministry is aware of problems of erosion and visibility caused by this sort of activity. If one person is allowed to occupy a Government site then it encourages others to do the same,'' said the spokeswoman.

The Ministry is more sympathetic to vendors selling Bermudian products, but would not tolerate the sale of non-Bermuda goods on Government property.

Mr. Bromby's three-year-old business sells garden equipment, including leaf blowers, hedge trimmers, chainsaws and lawn mowers at what he claims to be the lowest prices on the Island.

WINGS CLIPPED -- Mr. John Bromby has set up shop selling lawnmowers in a vacant lot west of Giant Foods store in Warwick. His Saturday sale of garden goods was at Barnes Corner for the last three years.