She may only by eight years old, but Kayla Tavares is ready to take Ewart Brown and his Government to task.

While most young children are busy watching cartoons or playing on their computers, Kayla has been dipping her toes into the world of politics by outlining her concerns over sustainable development in Bermuda. The Saltus Junior School pupil says she has grown increasingly worried after watching concrete buildings take the place of more and more of the Island’s green space over the past few years.

Now she has put pen to paper in a letter to The Royal Gazette, urging Dr. Brown and his colleagues to think about the long-term effects of the many hotel or residential developments under construction across Bermuda.

“If the Government doesn’t stop this soon, Bermuda will be all concrete and no grass, trees and flowers,” her letter warns.

“It seems that the Government does not care about Bermuda’s future. I am just trying to help Bermuda for all our futures.”

To demonstrate her fears, the youngster, from St. George’s, spoke to this newspaper outside Victoria Park — opposite a tall apartment complex being constructed on the corner of Cedar Avenue and Dundonald Street.

“I don’t know why they are even building things,” she said. “They already have other ones that are not even full, and they are building more.”

When asked what she thought about the Government, she shook her head slowly and sighed.

“They don’t know how to handle things, they don’t,” she said.

“They are building too much. They should spend the money on people who need it like the elderly. They should take care of them.

“Bermuda is an island. A city is full of buildings. But that’s what they are trying to turn Bermuda into. There’s already enough cities everywhere else.”

Mum Karen, 40, said Kayla’s political interest was nothing new.

“This child has been like this since she was four years old,” she said.

“She’s been to every spot on the Island, and she notices just from when we drive around the major changes in just a few years.

“We go past this construction every day and she always says something about it.

“I speak to other people around her but she has always had her own views and opinions. She’s just so bright — everything she hears, she takes in. She has a very strong, moral ethic for what is right and wrong. She cares very much about the Island.”

Mrs. Tavares said Kayla has long called for children to be allowed to vote.

“Her main thing is that people need to take children’s concerns seriously,” she explained. “They are people too.

“She says kids should be allowed to vote. She’s right — it’s their future, not these older ones.

“When she was writing the letter, my husband said ‘why are you letting her do that? They will never put it in the paper’. I said we should just humour her, but it’s also good that she can have her say.”

Despite her strong views, Kayla has not yet declared any intent to become a politician when she grows up.

“She was saying ‘if I was a governor I would do this, I would do that, the Government are not worrying about the people’,” Mrs. Tavares said.

“But I asked her if she wanted to be a governor and she said she wasn’t too sure. She said she still has plenty of time to decide what to do.”

Kayla knows what way she is leaning at the moment.

“I love animals,” she said. “I would like to work with them, like a vet, or at a zoo or an aquarium.”