In response to protesters objecting to an “industrial” maintenance hub in the Botanical Gardens in Paget, Public Works cited the property’s lengthy history of heavy-duty use.

Last night’s statement was issued after the formation of an action group, Take Back Our Park, which is calling on the Bermuda Government to stop the development.

A maintenance yard has existed in the centre of the Botanical Gardens since the 1960s, but the group argues that the new hub now under construction is much larger in scale than the previous yard, which was badly damaged in 2003 by Hurricane Fabian.

Although a water tower is already in place, protesters have called for a halt to the development, which they criticise as an eyesore.

The Department of Parks is to base its central operations in the site, which lies west of the Camden House property.

A ministry spokeswoman said that Parks had shifted to the Marsh Folly, Pembroke, facility in 2013, when construction began in earnest at the Paget site.

“Marsh Folly is not large enough for our operations and, while numerous studies have been conducted to find a more suitable location for the maintenance yard, the location at Botanical Gardens was determined to be the best choice,” she said.

Although the group opposing the development has called it visually obtrusive, the spokeswoman said that the visual impact of the buildings’ design had been “one of the primary focal points of the project”.

She added: “As such, the roof levels were reduced, the only two-storey building is on the northern border where the public toilets were, and due to the levelling of the site, this is effectively one storey above ground level.

“The water tank has been installed to reduce dependence on mains water and will collect water from the new building roofs in traditional style.

“It is set at the same height as the adjacent buildings, again to minimise impact. Indeed, the philosophy of the redesign was to simplify in order to reduce costs, both short-term and operational, and also reduce environmental and visual impacts.”

According to the ministry, the Parks department has been making use of the mustering station for Agriculture and Fisheries employees for more than four decades.

“Around the turn of the century, it was a canning factory,” the spokeswoman added.

“The area has been an industrial site for a very long time. Previously, there were three very large buildings.

“The first was a three-storey building approximately 130ft long running east to west; the second was a double-garaged heavy truck workshop, with a spray workshop attached, which was approximately 20ft high and 100ft by 100ft in size — the public toilets were on the parking lot side of this building.

“In addition, this garage was situated on the top of a hill.

“The third building was a storage facility for chemicals and natural materials and was 20ft wide by 100ft long.

“Despite these large buildings, very few people knew that they existed because they were screened from the rest of the garden by vegetation.”

Much of the yard’s surrounding trees were knocked down by Hurricane Fabian. However, the Ministry of Public Works said the facility would once again be screened from view.

“As previously mentioned, this has been the maintenance yard for decades and to date the department has had no complaints from area residents about excess traffic or noise,” the spokeswoman said.