If the former Pembroke Dump was turned into a park as proposed in 1987 it would have been the crown jewel of the national parks system.

A look at the original $10m proposal, still available today at the Department of Planning, shows a wide-sweeping public park of trails, playgrounds and an amphitheatre.

The plan was painstakingly put together by a group of Harvard University landscape architects who visited Bermuda, consulted with the neighbourhoods and publicly displayed their work for input.

On the first page of the 30-plus-page document the authors wrote: "Pembroke Dump, currently an eyesore and a nuisance in the heart of Bermuda's most densely populated residential area, has the potential to become a delightful and attractive parkland."

The opening of the Tynes Bay Incinerator was supposed to eliminate the need for the Pembroke Dump, paving the way for the new park.

But sometime between the opening of Tynes Bay and groundbreaking on the park, someone decided the former landfill should be used to handle horticultural waste.

Currently it handles massive amounts of material that is sorted and pulverised on site. Presumably the Marsh Folly plant will have to continue processing horticultural waste at least until an alternative location, perhaps equally as large, is found.

The chatter about a public park behind the city of Hamilton goes back even farther than 20 years.

The Pembroke Marsh Redevelopment Committee formed back in 1983. It facilitated the work of the Harvard group in 1985 and 1986.

The researchers presented their plan to the public in 1987. And then by November 1989, Cabinet officially approved a $10m plan to build the park.