Concern has been expressed over the future of the City of Hamilton should the Bermuda Government complete its hostile takeover.

The Government’s proposed control of the Corporation of Hamilton is still the subject of a legal battle.

But Charles Gosling, the Mayor of Hamilton, has his reservations over government competence, wondering aloud Thursday if it would be maintained in the same “embarrassing” state as the rest of the island.

A year after the Municipalities Reform Act was passed in March 2019, to turn Bermuda's two municipalities into unelected quangos, Mr Gosling announced plans to lodge an appeal with the Privy Council in London.

Answering a question put to him by The Royal Gazette, during the Washington Mall’s 50th-anniversary celebrations Thursday, Mr Gosling pointed to the Crawl Post Office on Radnor Road, Hamilton Parish, as an example of island dishevelment.

“I walk by there every morning,” he said. “There are two feet of weeds outside it. If the Government took over Hamilton, I would hate to see the city go the same path.”

He said a good bit of revitalisation has happened in Hamilton in the past few years, and it would be disappointing to those who had invested in it to see that go by the wayside.

Mr Gosling said no date has yet been finalised for their appeal to the Privy Council.

“It might not be until the spring or early summer of next year,” he said. “A lot hangs on the Privy Council.