Government says planning permission for a staff housing unit will remain a condition for Southlands, but under the criteria of a hotel operating licence.

Approval of staff housing was a prerequisite for a building permit for the South Shore resort in the draft Special Development Order but was omitted in the final SDO. The only housing mentioned was temporary facilities for construction workers - "arrangements to be made for the housing and transportation of any employee brought into Bermuda during the construction of the development".

Stuart Hayward, chairman of Bermuda Environmental and Sustainability Taskforce, said: "The developers must not be allowed to shield a ten-storey hotel intended to house 400 immigrant workers from Planning and public scrutiny."

However, Government this week said planning approval for staff housing will remain one of the conditions for Jumeirah Southlands. A spokesman said: "The condition regarding the staff housing was removed from the SDO and will be made a condition for the developers to receive a hotel operating licence. This was seen as a better solution than making the approval and construction of one development (staff housing) a condition for the approval of a different development (hotel and resort)."

He added: "Legal advice indicated that this course was advisable and that the development of the staff housing remains a condition of the Government's support of this project and that the application to build the staff housing will be handled accordingly."

Developers Southlands Ltd. applied for the ten-storey accommodation block last year. It is currently under review by planning officers.

The building, in Hunt's Quarry, Warwick, will house 375 Jumeirah Southlands staff but could also accommodate other hotel workers. The proposed unit consists of 125 single rooms and 125 two-person suites, plus cafe, fitness centre, First Aid/health centre, laundry facilites and meeting rooms. There are also parking spaces for 65 cars and 256 motorbikes.

Architects Botelho Wood say the housing block, off Khyber Pass, may even require its own SDO. However it will sit beneath the top of the quarry wall in height and does not encroach on any woodland or open space.

Sustainable development campaigners Greenrock were yesterday critical of the Government's failure to mention the staff housing unit in its July 26 broadcast on Southlands, and the subsequent omission in the SDO.

In a statement it said: "The exclusion of this detail is just symbolic of how things are being 'rifled' through without any consideration of the Sustainable Development Strategy Plan (SDSP).

"Greenrock is concerned how this current Government seems to be operating outside of its own guidelines stated in the SDSP and that it has jumped on pursuing this project as soon as Premier Dr. Ewart Brown took the reigns of control from Premier Alex Scott."

Last week, The Royal Gazette reported that Craig Christensen - one of the three owners of Southlands Ltd. - had revealed it was the Ministry of Tourism which had "encouraged" the hotel project back in 2005.

Greenrock said: "It would seem that the Ministry of Tourism, of which Ewart Brown was the Minister, was pursuing this project despite what his own Premier (Alex Scott) was doing in terms of the SDSP in 2005. Are we dealing with a Government that is saying 'Do as I say, not as I do'? Or maybe we are dealing with a Government where the Ministers can operate independently of their own leader, the Premier.

"Is this right? Is this the reason for this project to be 'fast-tracked'? Why haven't other projects that the Ministry of Tourism was pursuing been worked on so vigorously? Why haven't other brownsite tourism projects been finalised, considering they would be more in line with the guidelines of the SDSP?"