Calls from Government for Opposition members to stop sniping about the controversial delayed Berkeley Institute project have been rejected., updating the Senate on the progress of the scheme yesterday, suggested it was the time for criticism to end.

Sen. Burch told the media on Monday that the new senior secondary school was on target to be handed over to the Ministry of Education for classes to start in January.

He admitted the troubled project would be over budget and would open for classes well behind schedule.

Its initial completion date was September, 2003.

But he said any project that was more than 250,000 square feet ? the size of four and a half football pitches ? was going to experience deadline difficulties.

?Anyone who has ever built anything, from a house to adding a room, will readily appreciate that everything does not always go according to plan,? said Sen. Burch, who confirmed the total funding allocated to the project ? $121,709,000 ? was made public in the last Budget.

This includes $27 million of work outside the construction contract.

The project was started in 2002 at an estimated cost of $88 million.

Sen. Burch, who said it was time for everyone to ?band together? on Berkeley, added: ?My only hope is that those who have been so interested in the progress of the school and have spent so much time offering criticism, will be equally as vigilant and vociferous in ensuring that they do their part to ensure the success of our students.? said he hopes the ?political football? will now be put away on Berkeley.

But said the Opposition owe it to the public to hold the Government to account. And it will continue doing so, he added, as ?mega-projects? like the new hospital and Causeway are on the horizon.

Sen. Richards said Berkeley is costing $480 per square foot and he said that is a ?pretty high price to pay?. He said that now that the project is virtually completed, critics are being told to ?shut up?.

?I?m sorry, but if I go and buy a $30,000 car and I pay $50,000 I?m going to squawk about it, and I?m going to keep squawking about it, especially if I have to keep going back to buy the same thing from the same person.?

He said the forthcoming re-location of the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital is probably the biggest capital project Bermuda has ever seen.

?If we do not address Government waste and mismanagement now we would not be doing our job and people will wonder what the heck we are doing here,? he said.

?This is still a very important and germane issue as far as the Bermuda public is concerned.?reported yesterday how the Berkeley Board suggested classes would not be able to start by January without the move causing exam havoc.

It still remains unclear exactly when the new school will actually open, but the Board said a minimum of 90 days would be needed from the day it received the Berkeley keys from education officials so it could iron out new safety procedures, draw up timetables and make arrangements for teachers and students.

Ninety days from November 30, 2005, the new intended date for the completion of the fit-out of the school, would mean an opening of late February or early March opening date ? when exam preparations were in full flow.

Sen. Richards said the possibility of exam chaos was a legitimate excuse. But he told the Senate yesterday that arrangements over timetables and safety procedures were not good enough reasons to stop the school opening earlier.

?They could have done all that a long time ago,? he said, adding that he thought the best time to open would be during the Easter or Summer vacation.

Michael Charles, general secretary of the Bermuda Union of Teachers, yesterday said he could not predict when classes would start at the new site.

But he reiterated his view that September would be the most suitable time as it would cause the least interruption for students, who would come back from the summer holidays to a new school.

He said the move-in date should be in the best interests of pupils and not become a political issue.