A ten-storey staff housing complex has been given the go-ahead against Planning regulations, say environmental campaigners.

The Bermuda Environmental and Sustainability Taskforce (BEST) issued a statement last night claiming Environment Minister Glenn Blakeney has upheld an appeal by Nelson Hunt and Southlands Ltd. for the dormitory-style building.

BEST said the Minister's decision had set a "disturbing" precedent in Planning practice.

"The application was inadequate for the Development Applications Board (DAB) to make a complete assessment of the proposal and therefore should not have been the subject of an appeal," said BEST in a statement. "This precedent being set, whereby an incomplete application is given approval by the Minister on appeal, is highly disturbing.

"Applicants will now be able to submit the barest outline, bypass proper assessment by the DAB, then get approval via an appeal to the Minister thereby completely subverting the policies and procedures set up by Parliament on behalf of the Bermuda public to ensure orderly development."

BEST also claims no Environmental Impact Statement was undertaken with the application, yet the development will exceed the maximum height allowed.

The organisation added that the mix of residential and industrial uses on the same site is also prohibited; and the density of proposed units per acre is 3.4 times greater than that allowed.

The housing development, in Quarry Lane, Warwick, was originally intended to house up to 375 workers for the new Southlands resort and other hotel staff. But it was turned down by the DAB due to "insufficient information" on the mixed-use facility. Planning officials also said the density of staff housing would be excessive.

The proposed inclusion of warehousing and light industry on the same site was also deemed "incompatible".

Last night BEST also questioned the need for the dormitory-style complex due to the Southlands resort being redrawn. "As that hotel has been relocated to Morgan's Point, the application for a dormitory and laundry facilities at the Hunt's Quarry site in Warwick has questionable validity," said BEST. "In an unusual twist, at the same time as the applicants were applying to build a residential unit on the site, they were applying to have the zoning of that site changed from Residential to Industrial.

"The re-zoning, which has in effect been achieved, renders the building application a 'non-conforming' use for the new zoning, according to the Bermuda Plan.

"BEST is alarmed that the mechanisms enacted into law by Parliament to regulate development are more frequently being overturned, bypassed or subverted by Government Ministers not acting in the public interest as they are mandated to do.

"Recent examples are the nine-storey Seon House (Place) on East Broadway, the proposed beach bar at Warwick Long Bay, and the condominium development on land zoned Recreational Open Space at the golf course at the Fairmont Southampton Hotel.

"In each case, the wisdom of the Development Applications Board and the assessments of independent inspectors were overturned and ignored.

"In this latest case, the Minister has given permission for an application that violates numerous Planning standards, imposes an unprecedented social and environmental burden on an already density-stressed residential community, and is so inadequate as to disable the DAB from making or giving its reasoned decision.

"We must question whether a Cabinet Minister has gone beyond exercising a discretion, as the law permits, to usurping Parliament's role for the making and/or changing of Bermuda's laws."

Government did not return this newspaper's request for comment last night.