Parish are believed to have poured into the Department of Planning last week.

"Fax traffic has been steady and heavy,'' said one Planning Department official.

Save Open Spaces (SOS), an environmental watch dog group., took a three quarter page advertisement in last Tuesday's Royal Gazette asking readers to fill out an objection form and send or fax them in to the Department of Planning.

"Response has been good so far,'' SOS member Ian MacDonald Smith said yesterday.

"I won't know exactly how many objections have gone into Planning for a couple of days, but I believe there have been many.

"Most of the feedback I've been getting is positive and supportive. Of course not across the board, but what do you expect?'' The deadline for objections to be submitted was last Friday.

SOS is objecting to the proposed $65 million development of Ship's Hill by Bermuda Properties Ltd. which is seeking permission to build town houses in the area.

The objection form, and a call by SOS for a Royal Commission earlier this week, are the latest moves in a long-running effort to block the development.

Earlier this month, Bermuda Properties Ltd. applied for final planning approval for the development of 13 houses with swimming pools, 13 two-story town houses, a communal pool, four tennis courts and a water tank -- down from their original plans for 37 houses.

Conservationists say the development will wreck a sensitive area of Bermuda and the underlying caves, which Mr. MacDonald Smith said are home to 25 "native and endemic shrimp species which are on the critical and endangered list.'' BPL insists that its plans will enhance the area, will not endanger the caves and will give native plant species a chance to thrive. They also say the town house development will boost the nearby Castle Harbour resort.

Original permission for development was given in principle in 1995 amid threats that the Marriott group -- which has suffered multi-million dollar losses in Bermuda -- would quit the Island if the losses continued.

ENVIRONMENT ENV