A group of Paget residents are renewing their fiery battle to stop a condo development in their neighbourhood.

The Bostock Hill group has written a letter to the Department of Planning voicing concern that a former Cabinet Minister is involved with a development project for which he granted approval after a series of appeals.

The residents lost their long battle to stop the project two years ago when then Environment Minister Arthur Hodgson dismissed their appeal.

The group have since learned Mr. Hodgson is now listed a guarantor of a Bank of Bermuda loan to the development company - Bostock Mews Limited - of which his son Jelanil is one of the directors.

Speaking from overseas, however, Mr. Hodgson told The Royal Gazette he only recently became involved with the project and had scant knowledge of it when he was Minister.

"When I was Minister I knew nothing about the project or what was involved with it. It was just an application dealt with by Planning," he said.

Mr. Hodgson said the owners approached him for help with the project long after he ceased to be Environment Minister, in November 2000.

Mr. Hodgson said he was involved with real estate development prior to his time as Minister and has since returned to the business.

"That's what I am doing now with several properties," he said when he was told the objectors wrote to Planning this week to raise their concerns over the site.

"We are shocked, indeed sickened, to discover that the former Minister of the Environment who approved this development, Mr. Arthur Hodgson, is the person who is also financing this development," wrote lawyer Juliana Jack of Mello, Jones and Martin - who is acting for the objectors and, is also Bostock Hill resident.

"Along with Mr. Jelanil Hodgson, Mr. Arthur Hodgson is the guarantor of the loan being made to the development company - namely, Bostock Mews Limited."

The objectors are also concerned over the involvement of Mr. Hodgson's son in the development.

Objector Mark Eldridge told The Royal Gazette the group tried in 1999 to trace the ownership of the development company - originally listed on Planning documents as Bostock Mews Development - only to discover the company was not a legal entity in Bermuda.

"Bostock Mews Limited became a legal entity in June 2001 and Jelanil Hodgson is listed as one of its directors," objector Mark Eldridge said.

Mr. Jelanil Hodgson told The Royal Gazette, he only became involved in the project "very recently".

"I am confident there was no impropriety involved," he said.

Thirty-one residents of Bostock Hill first objected to a plan to construct five, three-bedroom condos and a pool on a third of an acre lot in 1999 on the grounds the development would increase noise, traffic and congestion in the area.

The group's first appeal against the developers was granted by Mr. Hodgson in August of that year after the group proved the development crossed onto land protected by agricultural zoning.

The decision was made on the recommendation of the independent Inspector who was brought in from overseas to advise on the appeal.

Despite the victory, the group said at the time, they felt Mr. Hodgson had "invited" the developers to reapply in the wording of his decision and suggested the type of development that would be accepted.

Shortly after, a revised plan for three condos without a pool was submitted and the residents' group lost a second appeal when it was dismissed on the recommendation of Planning Inspector Peter Cummings.

Approval for those plans expired last Monday.

"We are writing today because the two-year period specified under section 23 of the Act within which development must commence has now expired," Ms Jack wrote to Planning.

Director of Planning Rudolph Hollis confirmed this week that approval for the site had expired and the developers must reapply.

He also wrote a letter to agents Entasis Architecture to that effect.

Mr. Hollis said some work can continue on the site - such as land clearance - but nothing of a structural nature can proceed unless the Planning process is again successfully completed.

The residents are now gathering steam to renew their fight against the development.

Objector Mark Eldridge told The Royal Gazette, many of the 31 original objectors who have been contacted about new information, are even more outraged than they were in 1999.

"As much as this might seem like this is just a story about a group of neighbours rising up against another condo development, it is different because the site is adjacent to arable land," Mr. Eldridge said.