deferred by the Development Applications Board.

Plans for the marina, which the hotel wants to locate between its beach and the Causeway, were originally held back by the Board so they could be advertised.

The latest application is a scaled down version of the first, which the Board rejected. Put forward in 1989, it proposed a 60-berth marina.

Hotel shareholder Mr. Ralph Terceira said the marina would not interfere with beach-goers.

It would only be for hotel guests arriving in Bermuda by yacht and local boaters dining at the hotel.

"There are certain times of the year when there are a number of visiting yachts in Bermuda and their owners and crew really have no place to go and still be near their yachts other than the Hamilton Princess Hotel,'' Mr Terceira said. "It would also be for locals who want to tie up alongside the hotel and have dinner.'' Mr. Terceira stressed the docking facility would not be open to the general public. And he denied it was a first step to turning the hotel into a condo complex. "That's just a rumour,'' he said.

Former employee of the hotel Mr. Tony Brannon has claimed management was letting working conditions and morale at the hotel deteriorate because it had plans to convert Grotto Bay into condominiums.

But hotel secretary Mr. Charles Vaucrosson countered: "Mr. Brannon does not have any facts. There are plans for additional tourist units and we're going to renovate. But we have no intention of changing the hotel into condominiums -- absolutely not.'' The Board have approved Mrs. Barbara Bean's application to sell baked goods from her home.

Mrs. Bean, a one-time owner of Dot and Andy's Restaurant in Bailey's Bay, hopes to begin selling her baked goods from her Dundonald Street home early next year.