A Government committee has called for a development freeze at Dockyard, describing some of Wedco's work to date as "pale Walt Disney style imitation''.

The Historic Buildings Advisory Committee "deplores'' the lack of an over-all plan in developing the Clocktower building, the committee chaired by Mr.

Andrew Trimingham said in a recent letter to the Development Applications Board obtained by The Royal Gazette .

"It cannot possibly be the business of the department to stand by and allow destruction of our architectural heritage to proceed unchecked in order to relieve Wedco of the consequences of its own lack of planning.'' The committee urged that "no further development be permitted at the Dockyard without a thorough re-evaluation of Wedco's over-all plans.

"This should be accompanied by a set of architectural principles that will govern their achievement'', the committee said. "We are satisfied that no such plan or architectural principles are now in place.'' Mr. George Smith, general manager of the West End Development Development Corporation, could not be reached for comment yesterday.

But Wedco has received community kudos for its Clocktower development. And Dockyard, which attracted nearly 312,000 visitors last year, was Bermuda's most popular attraction, a Department of Tourism poll showed.

As it prepares to take over HMS Malabar at the end of this month and develop a small hotel, a snorkel park, and a brew pub among other attractions, a proposal for a development freeze is expected to draw a sharp response from Wedco.

The letter said "one of the obvious results of occupying a complex of historical buildings of international importance'' was that accommodating changes of use would sometimes be "very much more expensive''.

The committee could "not accept greater expense as an acceptable reason for not respecting the architecture'' at the root of Wedco's economic advantage.

"The committee notes with alarm that not only does there appear to be no plan, there seems to be no single architect for the redevelopment of the area who would be in control of such a plan,'' the letter went on. For that reason, "this constant, piecemeal uncoordinated erosion of one of Bermuda's greatest architectural and historic treasures can be expected to be pursued unabated''.

The letter said Wedco's position that it had been encouraged to retain existing design elements and the "style'' of Dockyard was "a cop-out''.

"Without using the same stone and construction elements as the original, Wedco has achieved little better, and sometimes worse, than a pale Walt Disney style imitation of the noble example they have sought to follow,'' the letter said.

"Flat, insubstantial imitation prevails in some cases, pathetic, fairy tale crenelations obtrude in others.''