The West End Development Company (Wedco) has never harboured any desires to seize control of the Bermuda Cement Company (BCC), insisted chairman Lt. Col. David Burch yesterday.

In fact, Wedco wants absolutely nothing to do with the cement business and was ?shocked and surprised? when BCC chairman Jim Butterfield announced his intention to wind up the 40-year-old family business at the end of the year after an often acrimonious four-year lease re-negotiation ? a decision which has forced Wedco, Lt. Col. Burch said, into preparing to take control of the enterprise until as suitable replacement is found.

Amid much fanfare, an agreement was reached in January between Wedco and the BCC on a new 20-year deal, which would see the cement operation move to a new site 300 yards further down the dock from its current location as well as the destruction of the plant and its unsightly silos, up to 20 percent of the company taken public and the rent increased by up to 2.5 percent of gross revenue or $100,000, whichever was the greater. The tense negotiations began in 2001 when the BCC approached Wedco to ask for a new 20-year lease and to inform them of its intention to completely refurbish what has become a rather old and dilapidated cement plant.

Wedco was reluctant to grant a 20-year lease, however, given its intention to relocate all industrial activities to Dockyard?s South Basin and redevelop the vacated land as housing.

A ten-year lease was all that Wedco was prepared to offer the BCC and in response, Mr. Butterfield agreed that he would move his operation to the nearby plot of land which the landlord had made available.

But Mr. Butterfield told on Wednesday that the new site on offer was ?essentially a dump? in need of a considerable clean up which would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars ? an expense Wedco had refused to meet, he claimed.

This, combined with the escalating cost estimates of knocking down the old cement plant and building a new one, meant that any move away from the current site was no longer financially viable, according to Mr. Butterfield.

He also said that he subsequently went back to Wedco to urge the adoption of his original proposal which Wedco again refused, Mr. Butterfield said ? a rejection which has now forced him into shutting down the business after 21 years at the helm.

Mr. Butterfield described Wedco?s handling of the matter as ?diabolical? and intimated that they had deliberately made it impossible for him to continue the business in order to seize what it considers to be ?a great golden egg?.

But Lt. Col. Burch vehemently denied this yesterday, arguing that the first he had heard about the supposed problems with the new site was upon reading yesterday?s front page article in

Mr. Butterfield had never brought his concerns over the site to Wedco, he added, and even if he had the Government quango would have been more than happy to sit down with him to seek a solution.

Negotiations over the cost of the relocation were ongoing, he continued, and the BCC?s decision to ?unilaterally? rescind on the agreement the two parties had come to in January had caught everybody at Wedco off guard. In the meantime, with the BCC having made it abundantly clear that it will be ceasing operations come December 31, Wedco has ?regrettably? been forced into taking steps to ensure that the supply of cement to the Island is not interrupted, he continued.

?The Board of the West End Development Company has no desire whatsoever to enter the cement business,? he said.

?However, we would be grossly negligent in our responsibilities if we did not take all steps to ensure the continued, uninterrupted supply of cement to this country ... our primary objective is two-fold. One is to ensure the uninterrupted supply of cement and two, to hand over the management, the operation or whatever you want to call it to a proper entity other than Wedco. It seems peculiar to us, that having arrived at the decision where they [BCC thought it was uneconomical [to relocate that there was not an approach to Wedco to say ?let?s talk?, as opposed to going back to their original position which did not fly with us in the first place. Surely the answer is not to chuck the whole deal, it?s to come back to Wedco and negotiate with us. If in fact what is alleged [about the inappropriateness of the new site is correct, then clearly that is a negotiating point which weighs very heavily in the Bermuda Cement Company?s favour and we would never tell them to ?go away because that is what you agreed to?.

?Regrettably from our points of view,? he continued, ?we are going to have to spend a large amount of our time going forward talking about cement. We all believed back in January that this had been put to bed. Why are we here now talking about cement? I don?t think any of us see it as a ?golden egg?.

?Wedco has no intention and no interest in taking over Mr. Butterfield?s business at all. We?re not the ones who broke the agreement. We?re not the ones who said ?take it or leave it?. So how anybody can turn around and say that we are the ones trying to take away your company defies logic.?