Government is to investigate why the Bermuda Land Development Company (BLDC) allowed the former American submarine tracking facility at Tudor Hill, Southampton, to fall victim to vandals after it was recently found to have been laid to waste.

National Liberal Party activist Graeme Outerbridge said he came across the site by chance last weekend while taking photographs.

"This is an asset that has been completely wasted," he said yesterday as he took The Royal Gazette ona tour of the smashed complex - once a highly sensitive post used by the American military during the Cold War to listen for Soviet submarines.

The outside and inside walls were covered in graffiti, which included two handgun signs with the words 'Gun Alley' scrawled next to them.

Both the base's recreational facility and its computer centre, which command spectacular sea views, had also been broken into and laid to waste.

Every one of the place's windows had been smashed and inside there were mattresses on the floor, along with dead rats and garbage.

Mr. Outerbridge said: "It looks like it's been used for parties or drug dealing. The graffiti on the wall is stuff that we have seen all over the Island."

A length of the facility's security fence had been ripped out and opposite two rusting cars that had been left derelict, there was a clearing in the bushes where a couple of motorcycles seemed to have been stripped for their various spare parts.

It is understood that Police were notified by local residents that the place might have been being used for criminal activity but that little was done to stop it.

The BLDC was formed to look after the baselands, including property at Morgan's Point, Southside and Daniel's Head, after the Americans pulled out in 1995.

The Royal Gazette was unable to contact BDLC Chief Executive Officer George Smith by press time last night.

But Works and Engineering Minister Alex Scott said he would order the the site to assessed by Government personnel and, if necessary, call Mr. Smith to ask what had happened.

"This all comes as news to me," he said. "We have had potential developers go up there from time to time but we did not know about the actual condition of it. It sounds as if it is going to need some sort of security presence."

Mr. Scott said the responsibility for that lay with the BLDC and added: "Certainly we don't want any Government property being used for illegal activities."

Mr. Outerbridge said: "The BLDC has not done one thing to maintain this place. It doesn't seem like there has been any security or landscaping work. The Americans used to protect it with live ammunition and it must have been one of the most sensitive facilities outside the US. It was in pristine condition when it was handed over. Now it has been trashed."

He led us into a room in which the floorboards had been ripped up, leaving a dangerous gaping hole.

"This is a clear hazard. You would think that, on the wages those people at the BLDC are paid, they could have made sure this place had security."

He asked why, if the BLDC had not been willing to look after it, it had not been handed over to some other organisation so that it would not have become derelict.

"If there were no finances for it, then why wasn't this even raised in the House of Assembly. This is a wasted asset. Its been trashed through total neglect.

"It is a beautiful piece of property and it could have been used for anything, such as a basketball court, or sold to someone else to be developed.

"This begs the question of whether the BLDC can really handle these lands."

It was reported in 1998 that the land had been re-zoned by the then UBP Government for use as a possible tourist or residential site.

At the time, while the site was not actively being marketed, the BLDC said the company was open to offers. In 2000, Mr. Smith told the Associated Press the property "could have some tourist applications because it is such an ideal location".