long as the transactions don't mushroom into a commercial operation, the Environment Minister said yesterday.

The Minister was responding to fears that the new Bermuda Development Plan would prevent artists from using their homes to sell directly to the public.

They are circulating a petition saying the plan "unfairly penalises'' them as well as other people who work out of their homes.

But Mrs. Cartwright DeCouto said the Planning Statement was being too strictly interpreted.

"Let's get some balance here,'' she said yesterday. "If someone pops by an artist's home and and buys a painting then that should be okay. But if it is on a scale of an art gallery, then they'll need a commercial licence.'' The Society is taking aim at a clause in the Planning Statement that allows homes to be used for an occupation as long as it does not involve "direct sales of goods or produce from the premises to the public ...'' Mrs. Cartwright DeCouto said the statement's wording was intended to help eliminate homespun commercial establishments from sprouting in residential neighbourhoods.

"This is designed to address that public nuisance,'' she said. "This is what we're trying to get at: A man fixes his car in the backyard. He then fixes his mate's car. He strips the engine of another, and then fixes six outboard engines.

"Presto. You've got a commercial operation in the middle of a residential neighbourhood much to the distress of the neighbours.'' Mrs. Cartwright DeCouto said the restriction of the new Plan would come into effect with intensification of direct sales.

"This is for people, for example, who are not only cooking pies at home but serving and selling them, who have opened kitchens and have customers parking on roads to get to them,'' she said.

"This is what we want to control, to preserve residential characteristics of residential neighbourhoods.''