because of constantly changing planning guidelines, the Shadow Environment Minister said yesterday.

Mr. Julian Hall said the Progressive Labour Party "supports any reasonable measures aimed at safeguarding and preserving Bermuda's open spaces, particularly our woodland areas, green belts and depleted arable land resources.'' But individual rights must be protected as well, he said. Many people owned land whose value was based on their ability to develop it -- value they now risked losing.

He warned landowners may seek financial compensation from Government for taking away the development potential of their property. "The Bermudian taxpayers may ultimately be required to bear a heavy financial burden,'' he said.

The effect of the 1992 Development Plan "has been to dramatically move the goalposts for a very large number of landowners''.

"Many will lose an aggregate of millions of dollars of value. The numbers of lots affected must certainly be in the hundreds, if not the thousands. The plans, balance sheets, banking arrangements and positions of many will now be thrown into disarray.'' Nor were property owners properly warned, Mr. Hall said. The Plan was not debated in the House of Assembly, and no notice was given to property owners.

"Because Bermuda has failed, despite years of PLP urging, to establish a proper system of registration of land title and ownership, there is no guarantee that many of the landowners affected...will be informed of their losses in value for several years, if ever,'' Mr. Hall said.

He noted that Environment Minister the Hon. Ann Cartwright DeCouto recently tried to assure the public that concerns and objections will be fairly resolved.

"Yet you cannot object unless you know,'' he said. "...Once again, we are not satisfied that the Bermuda Government has instituted a fair way for dealing with the requirements of natural justice.'' He was concerned that objections were to be handled by the Ministry and a tribunal whose criteria had not been spelled out. "It is the unhappy experience of many Bermudians that where such review criteria are either vague or uncertain, ultimate Government action lays itself open, often with justification, to criticisms of partiality, ... UBP cronyism and unreasonableness.'' The criteria for land use decisions must be crystal clear to prevent confusion and abuse, Mr. Hall said.

"The Elbow Beach issue really touches on this same point,'' he said. "It's becoming a lottery. If you are in with the Government, if you have the ear of the right people in the right places, or if you have lots of money which you can throw around, you have a great chance.

"That's not to say I'm opposed to the proposed Elbow Beach development: I'm firmly in support of any reasonable project -- and this seems to be one -- that is going to inject some life into what is clearly a stagnant economy.

"But I do have some sympathy with the plight both of the Elbow developers and of the objectors, because everyone is kind of moving around in the dark.'' A person forbidden to build under the latest Plan may believe the rules are unfair if Elbow Beach gets permission for development, he said.