The One Bermuda Alliance and a leading environmental charity have expressed concerns about how the Government is handling the Fairmont Southampton special development order.

Reservations were shared with The Royal Gazette after a statutory instrument was published in the official gazette last week.

Jarion Richardson, the Shadow Minister of the Cabinet Office and Digital Innovation, said “far greater transparency when government is signing away open space for large-scale development” was required.

Meanwhile, Kim Smith, the executive director of the Bermuda Environmental Sustainability Taskforce, said it was imperative that the public has time to consider any alterations that may have been made.

Diallo Rabain, the Minister of the Cabinet Office and Digital Innovation, said last week that the existing order finalises, but does not alter, what Walter Roban, the former Minister of Home Affairs, approved in 2023.

He urged those who object to the SDO to continue voicing their concerns, but said: “As the Government, we need to move forward with projects like this that will benefit us all and outweigh the balance of not satisfying some things, but satisfying most things that need to be done.”

Mr Richardson told The Royal Gazette: “We have always supported the reopening of the Fairmont Southampton hotel and the jobs it will create, but support for the hotel does not mean giving the Government a blank cheque to overdevelop one of Bermuda’s most iconic sites, or to sideline the very planning rules and professionals it once praised.

“The Government approved this SDO in 2023. Two years later it was quietly gazetted as a different legal instrument, using a negative resolution procedure that avoids proactive debate.

“MPs and the public are now told, ‘raise your concerns’, without being shown a clear comparison of what has changed. That is not meaningful consultation; it is going through the motions.

“Before this SDO takes effect, the minister must publish a simple, side-by-side explanation of every change since 2023 — densities, heights, road realignments, conservation areas and any additional concessions — and allow sufficient time for the public and Parliament to scrutinise it. Anything less reduces our planning system to a rubber stamp.

“We reaffirm the OBA’s longstanding position that projects of genuine national importance should come to Parliament under affirmative resolution, so elected members can debate and, where necessary, amend what is put before them.

“That is what we called for in 2023 and it is even more important now that the SDO has finally been gazetted.

“Finally, this SDO must not be used as a back door to further concrete encroachment on green spaces. Bermudians have been clear — we will not trade away our remaining open spaces for concrete skylines and short-term deals.”

Mr Rabain said the original SDO was written and was being discussed with the Department of Planning.

He added: “With extensive conversations with the department, it was finalised and is ready to be signed into law.”

He said in 2023: “Approving this SDO will help strengthen Bermuda’s global visibility and competitiveness as a tourism destination and promote future investment in our island.”

Ms Smith questioned what specific improvements and refinements were made to the order since 2023.

She told The Royal Gazette: “Here we are, more than two years later, the SDO in the form of a statutory instrument has been gazetted, but it is not the same as was approved given the ‘improvements’ and ‘refinements’.”

The SDO as published allows for the development of 159 tourist and 93 residential units, to be built on two to four-storey buildings on the property.

It also provided for the development of an internal system of roadways and associated parking areas, improvements to the Railway Trail and “the realignment of South Road and consequent revised vehicular access to any affected existing property”.

The SDO also includes a total 7.5 acres of protected land, most of which is reserve next to South Shore.

Ms Smith also highlighted how the instrument is subject to negative resolution in the House, so MPs will not get to debate its details, only voice their objections.

She explained: “Therefore, all MPs also need to have the details of how the SDO has been changed since what it was, what it included in October 2023 … or the process in the House will be a sham.”

Several organisations, including BEST, the BNT and the Bermuda Audubon Society, objected to the development.