Residents are furious at the plan by Fairmont Hotels and Resorts to build 54 tourist units on Turtle Hill, Southampton and 91 golf villas on a popular golf course, reducing it to nine playable holes.

Susan Roblin, of Southampton, said she would object to the plans because there was hardly any open space left on the Island and she alleged that the golf villas will be sold freehold to non-Bermudians.

?When is everyone going to wake up and smell the cement?? Mrs. Roblin asked.

?If this is gone what will we have left?

?Why don?t we bulldoze the whole Island and make one giant condo? Every time you turn around another beautiful hillside is gone.?

Mrs. Roblin said she has already seen a petition against the development circulating among members of the Fairmont Southampton golf course, which will soon be broadened out to the wider community.

?It is not going to help tourism,? she said. ?It not putting money in anyone?s pockets except for the new owners of the Fairmont Southampton.?

She added she was going to object to the plan at the Department of Planning before the objection period ran out today.

Mrs. Roblin and other residents ? who did not want to be named ? claimed they were told at a meeting on March 16 that the 91 golf villas will be available for sale freehold.

?The golf villas are condos,? she said.

?They say it will all be timeshare but it is not. It is only Turtle Hill. They said they will be sold freehold with assessment numbers. That?s 91 cars coming out of here.

?More cars are exactly what we need,? she quipped. ?That?s our land that?s being sold. It is not to promote tourism. It?s putting money into the owners pockets.?

Nor can the golf villas be used towards the affordable housing shortage, she added, as the villas could sell for millions of dollars to non-Bermudians.

?There might be a few Bermudians who can who will buy one but the majority are for non-Bermudians,? she said.

?Golf villas are a dime a dozen in the US. They don?t have to fly to Bermuda to play a nine-hole course. They say you can go around a nine-hole course twice but golfers aren?t that stupid.?

She said the family that originally owned the land the golf course was built on, sold the land in the 1960s with the stipulation it would forever remain as a golf course or be reverted back to agricultural land.

?I always thought that golf courses were the one piece of land that was sacred,? she said. ?If it happens here what?s next? Government will build up at Port Royal and we will be left with nothing.?

Norman Mastalir, general manager of the Fairmont Southampton was off the Island and unable to respond to questions.

However, in a March 2 release, Mr. Mastalir said: ?In addition, 91 individually owned golf villas are proposed on the uppermost northern edge of the golf course, which will have a vacation rental programme available.?

David Summers of Bermuda Caribbean Engineering Consultants said in the Planning application that there will be no new cars involved he said, as golf carts and livery cycles would be used instead.

It was also planned that Whale Bay, near Horseshoe Beach, will have a new clubhouse, swimming pools, Jacuzzis, pool bar, water slide and fire pit.