The West End Development Corporation is to enter into new lease negotiations with the Bermuda Cement Company (BCC).

WEDCO chairman David Burch made the announcement last night after staff at BCC - which leases its production site from WEDCO ? went on strike because over the uncertainty of the company?s future at its current location.

Yesterday Lt. Col. Burch said: ?Let me first state for the record that BCC have held a monopolistic lease on the cement facility at the Royal Naval Dockyard for 40 years.

?Currently the rental income to WEDCO is $48,000 per annum ? an incredibly low sum for what is a multimillion dollar operation,? he said.

?WEDCO?s board took the decision to broaden the economic opportunity to the wider community by providing for the participation of a wider cross section of the population through share ownership in the operation.?

Lt. Col. Burch said the board ?wanted to create a greater financial return to the public purse through rental income?.

As a result of this WEDCO asked for proposals for the site to be delivered to them.

He also said that because he only became Chairman two months ago (on September 24, 2004) ?this process was delayed to allow me to become fully conversant with the issues involved?.

?I must confess that the Corporation, through an administrative ?hic-cup? is also responsible for a delay in communicating with the parties concerned. For this, I apologise,? he said.

He said that ten companies collected the paperwork to make a proposal for the cement plant but: ?only three companies? submitted bids?, although he declined to say who the three companies were.

?Of these three companies,? he continued, ?BCC was clearly the best, however, their bid did not include an opportunity to broaden the base as the board had stipulated. Communication was sent to the three bidding companies with a view to starting negotiations next week.?

However, after BCC?s General Manager, Jim Butterfield announced in yesterday that BCC was willing to put its shares on the Bermuda stock exchange, Lt. Col. Burch said he ?called a special meeting of the Cement Sub Committee to review this new development?.

?I am pleased to report that WEDCO has agreed to enter into new lease negotiations with BCC.?

Last night BCC general manager Jim Butterfield said the company welcomed the announcement of the new negotiations and was ?willing to sit down at any time?, but said they wanted to ?set the record straight? about some of Lt. Col. Burch?s remarks.

On monopoly, he said: ?We formed a company that found a way to get cement to Bermuda the cheapest way possible and the community have benefited? we have all benefited. But anyone can do what we do?.

They agreed that they did pay $48,000 a year in rent.

?That rent was put in place 40 years ago by Crown Lands (Government) and it has been adjusted on an either yearly or three year term in keeping with the consumer price index,? he said. ?We have always paid the rent as required?.

He said that the rental value of a property should not depend upon the business on the land.

?If we were losing money, where would we be then?? he asked. ?We are renting land not the buildings. We put the buildings there. We pay for 22,000 square feet of grass?.

He said that they accept WEDCO?s apology for not communicating with them.

However, Mr. Butterfield said that it was not WEDCO who suggested that the shareholding base be broadened, but BCC.

?They never asked for that in their Request for Proposal,? he said. ?They never said anything about broadening the base. BCC suggested it during the interview. It was something we came up with.? He said that the only letter they got from WEDCO said ?thanks, but no thanks?, to their idea and that any further questions should be directed to WEDCO?s General Manager, Lloyd Telford.

?We knew this could be next year,? Mr. Butterfield said. ?There was no mention of see you next week. We said that if we don?t hear from you in a week, we will go public.?