Shadow Housing Minister Senator Kim Swan has accused Government of trampling on people?s rights by bypassing Planning to rush through housing projects after years of inaction.

The United Bermuda Party Senator hit out after Works and Engineering and Housing Minister David Burch admitted he was ?short-circuiting? the planning process through the use of Special Development Orders (SDOs).

Sen. Swan said: ?The Housing Minister must not be allowed to trample on the rights of people simply because he and his Government have failed after eight years in power to plan for and build housing for people in need.

?Sen. David Burch?s comment is testament to the failure of the PLP Government to deliver on the housing issue.?

An SDO was controversially issued by the Environment Ministry recently to build 96 homes at the former Loughlands guest house in Paget.

Opponents of the plan said it broke precedent because the order was granted without supporting plans being provided and without public input.

The stalled Harbourside Village project was also pushed through via ministerial decree.

Sen Swan said Sen. Burch had justified this authoritarian approach on the grounds that there was a housing crisis.

?Well I say, where have you been? Where has your Government been?

?The housing crisis has been with us for years and it is only now with an election in sight that they are moving to meet needs that could have been met years ago.?

He said everyone agreed there was a need for affordable housing but now Government was setting itself apart from the rules governing everyone else.

?It?s about the Government doing things without documents, without consultation or disclosure. It is wrong and it violates natural justice.?

Speaking after a press conference yesterday, Sen. Burch said he ?fully appreciated? concerns about SDOs.

But he added: ?In relation to SDOs we are playing the system. We certainly didn?t amend the legislation. And the Special Development Order allows for special development.

?Playing the system in relation to Southside circumvents, to a great extent, the eight-month waiting period for planning permission. I make no apologies for that because the same people who criticise us for that are the very same ones criticising us for building no houses.?

Sen. Burch said he did not know if hotel developments would be fast-tracked through SDOs. And he said SDOs weren?t a blank cheque as the Planning Department had given the Loughlands project a lot of scrutiny.

He added: ?I think it should be used and justified wisely. Who defines wisely? To the greatest extent it is used wisely, it isn?t used widely.?

Sen Burch pledged he wasn?t going to use SDOs for every development. He added there was nothing about the Southside development that would warrant the Development Applications Board ?getting their knickers in a twist?.

However Sen. Swan said there was no disclosure about what the Government intends to do when SDOs are used.

?No one ? not the Development Applications Board, not the public, not community organisations, not Members of Parliament ? knows exactly what will be built.

?This approach makes a mockery of the Government?s own sustainable development initiative, which the Premier has said, relies on transparency and ?open and honest dialogue?.?

?Build affordable yes, but don?t do it on the wreckage of people?s rights to have a say in the life of their neighbourhoods.

?Bermuda is supposed to be a democracy. We should never forget that.?