Created more than 80 years ago, Bermuda's Advertisements Regulation Act has been dubbed the envy of the world. The forward thinking piece of legislation has staved off the horrors of neon signs, billboards and "sandwich board'' advertising to which other resorts have fallen victim.

Yet over recent years, signs have become bigger, bolder and more prolific.

Daily, the act is transgressed by businesses erecting oversized signs, well-meaning citizens flying birthday banners and people sporting Heineken T-shirts. Meanwhile, the response appears at best apathetic, at worst indifferent with even Front Street stores seemingly getting away with illegal signs and banners with impunity.

The act, created in 1911, technically makes all advertising illegal with a few exceptions. Stores may advertise sales and goods inside shop windows but outside, signs must not break the skyline and may only state the name of the company and general character of the business in letters not exceeding 15 inches. Anything else is strictly illegal.

But nowadays, according to art critic and historian Mr. Andrew Trimingham, "nobody obeys the law''.

The act, he said was a "great classic piece of legislation'' created in the days when Bermudians liked their Island free of advertising and wanted to keep it that way.

The impetus behind the act's creation, he believed, was a neon sign erected by Frith's Liquor Store at its former Reid Street location (now Stuart's).

Although it was the only illuminated sign on the Island, legislators moved quickly to stamp it out.

But today the question is whether such a restrictive law is still suited to a modern Bermuda.

According to Mr. Trimingham the act remains valid. Government's enforcement policies should be revised instead, he said.

"They are spineless. They are afraid of offending people,'' he claimed. But Environment Minister the Hon. Gerald Simons said Government lacked the manpower and legislative clout to effectively prosecute transgressors. He added that many people were simply ignorant of the law.

A Green Paper, currently being prepared by Government will explore ways of simplifying the 1911 Act and will set out possible ways of bringing it in line with the 1990s.

"It is important to protect the Bermuda image and part of it is to stop unsightly signs,'' Mr. Simons said. But he added that although the original act had already been amended 11 times, it was time to to amend it again.

Flagrant signs Since a crackdown on the "proliferation of illegal signs, posters, banners and billboards'' was announced last October, Mr. Simons said Government had started to re-examine details of the act.

One of the Minister's objectives in bringing the issue to the forefront is to simplify legal procedures that have hampered effective enforcement of the act in the courts.

Enforcement officer at the Planning Department, Mr. Larry Dickson, admitted Government had failed to secure a single conviction in recent years. The last case brought before the courts was thrown out on a technicality.

"The 1911 act is not coping with the modern day legal system,'' he admitted.

"It is outdated.'' As a result, the department relies on the co-operation of law breakers when asked to remove their signs. Another of the act's weaknesses is that it fails to specify which governmental agency is responsible for enforcement.

Mr. Dickson, who has worked for the Planning Department for about 20 years, claimed the act has been universally admired and emulated by other countries and is possibly the first legislation of its kind in the northern hemisphere.

But he admitted that while the act was remarkably prescient, it had not anticipated the broad shop windows, fluorescent colours and comparative wealth of latter day shop owners.

Letter size was permitted to be as large as it was, only because no one believed the majority of small merchants of the day could afford large signs.

But computer-printed placards and the aggressively competitive climate of the recession have made businesses bolder about drawing attention to themselves.

While the act's raison d'etre is primarily to do with aesthetics, safety is also a consideration in a country where hurricane force winds turn signs into lethal flying weapons and banners attached to electric poles are potentially hazardous.

Assistant Director of Planning, Mrs. Aideen Ratteray Pryse, said the department was "keeping an eye on'' the proliferation of banners over the last 18 months. While the department does not come down hard on Crow Lane "birthday banners'', Mrs. Ratteray said some businesses had caught onto the idea and used banners for commercial purposes. The department, she said, tried to target the people who erected them, not the sign makers.

The Minister admitted that while attempts to clamp down on offenders have met with "a small measure of success'' in the past, Government is poised to step up its efforts with a "photo blitz'' of the Island.

Results of the campaign designed to determine the extent of illegal signage around the Island, would be studied and followed up, he said.

OVERKILL -- More than 30 signs were counted at this premises. By law store signs must state just the name of the business and a general description of what it does.

BRIGHT BUT NOT BEAUTIFUL -- Illuminated signs are strictly forbidden under the 1911 Advertisements Regulations Act.