Former Premier Sir John Swan has welcomed fresh calls from Government for moving Hamilton docks but says its refusal to sanction a casino makes it virtually unworkable.

Earlier this week Tourism Minister Ewart Brown said he was pushing for Hamilton?s waterfront to be reinvigorated by moving the docks to the North Shore in one of the central parishes.

While this was music to Sir John?s ears, he believes slamming the door on casinos means the whole project would cost a fortune.

He said a casino could go hand in hand with a project to move the dock.

?If you just borrow money without corresponding revenue then you have a problem.

?I don?t know how you progress without it. You have to create the revenue, you cannot talk about what you want to do with Hamilton Waterfront and moving the docks without it.

?It?s like trying to build a big house and not being sure how to pay the mortgage.

?Bermudians have to face reality. If they want to do this there has to be a source of revenue, you have to get practical.

?You have to pay for the dock on North Shore, hopefully we can create the critical mass.

?If we shut the door on casinos, we shut the door on other things in the process.?

Big Las Vegas-style shows would be unlikely to create the volume of visitors needed, said Sir John.

He said studies in the 1980s had shown the docks were inadequate and he said the suggestion to improve them simply by removing some of the building was not long-term thinking when it was a life-line to Bermuda.

Previously he championed St. David?s and Tynes Bay as possible relocation sites but he now has zeroed in on the Ducking Stool, Pembroke. He said a study years ago had said Hamilton?s six-acre dock needed to be doubled in size.

Stevedoring Services boss Henry Hayward has said winter storms would make docks at the Ducking Stool unworkable several times a year while the sheltered Hamilton harbour allowed unloading to continue.

Sir John has called for a survey before leaping to conclusions.

?Henry Hayward just totally dismissed it, I just think it is totally irresponsible, without doing the proper study.

?Get in people used to dealing with the North Sea area, a winter here is never as hostile as a winter in the North Sea.?

?I am talking about bringing in people used to dealing with the elements where weather is very similar to how it is occasionally along the North Shore.

?You can either decide it cannot go there because of the weather, because it?s bad, or see how we can put it there. It?s an attitudinal problem.?

He said the main threat was when the wind came from north and boats could be turned to face into it.

Mr. Hayward said he would accept the word of experts if they were to find it workable.

Sir John said he used to be hell bent on the Tynes Bay area but the Ducking Stool was better because of the easier Hamilton access.

?I will take it anywhere it can go. My mind is not closed on it.?

Hamilton?s potential was being wasted at the moment, said Sir John. ?We are making cheap use of very expensive land.?

He said a car park should be built off East Broadway on the hill by Crow Lane for traffic from the west and one in the BlackWatch Pass area for traffic from the east with commuters from both then shuttled into the City.

People taking vehicles into the City would then be charged a toll said Sir John, just as had been done in London recently.

Such car parks need not be eyesores said Sir John who said he had seen attractive things done with windows and shrubbery.

?You cannot keep telling people Hamilton is an attractive place and yet when they arrive the first thing they see is nothing but containers.

?You cannot tell people Hamilton has a container problem when you have containers not being moved,? he said.

Feeding trucks of goods into a main artery of traffic was wrong, he added.

He said the move would free up Hamilton Harbour for local enterprise and bring a new dimension to Bermuda.

?We have to have the will in the long term,? he said.

Additional hotels could follow, said Sir John, who envisioned a revitalised Front Street as a place to take overseas clients and remove ?the boredom out of Bermuda?.