A Special Development Order (SDO) should not be used to “ram through” an “entirely unacceptable development” at the Coco Reef resort, former Opposition Leader Grant Gibbons told the House of Assembly on Saturday. The South Shore hotel has applied for planning permission for a redevelopment, including the building of 66 new units plus an “infinity pool” flowing through woodland.

The National Trust has objected to the scheme, which is under consideration for an SDO, a measure used to speed up the Planning process. Dr. Gibbons said he considered the building of 66 units on the eastern end of the Paget property “an atrocity”.

“That whole development plan up there that Coco Reed has put forward, it’s really out of line,” he said, adding that any new condominiums would be on taxpayers’ land.

Dr. Gibbons comments were made during an early morning debate on an investigation by the Public Accounts Committee into the finances of Bermuda College, which owns the Coco Reef hotel but leases it to a private company, Coco Reef Resorts.

Dr. Gibbons said it still wasn’t clear whether the college was subsidising Coco Reef and that the lease between the two was “incredibly weak”.