A documentary highlighting the potential environmental impact from the proposed Jumeriah Southlands hotel development will be shown on Bermuda Broadcasting Company’s ZBM channel 9 this evening.

The 30-minute programme looks primarily at the Southlands project, but also other recent hotel development proposals.

Bermuda Environmental and Sustainability Taskforce (BEST) have put together the programme, which was borne from a comment made at a town-hall meeting in March when a media cameraman suggested the information being discussed by the panel that night would be worthy of TV exposure to inform a wider audience on the Island.

Former Bermuda chief conservation officer Dr. David Wingate, Department of Planning veteran Rudolph Hollis and high school students Jessica O’Doherty and Caitlin Rego were speakers at the meeting.

The subsequent programme, which includes excerpts from the town hall meeting and additional footage, takes a more detailed look at the issue of hotel development at Southlands and along the South Shore, airs this evening at 8.30 p.m.

In March environmentalist and BEST chairman Stuart Hayward presented a 3,200-signature petition to Environment Minister Neletha Butterfield requesting her not to issue a special development order for the Southlands project.

As of today no SDO has been granted.

Mr. Hayward said the programme gives the wider Bermuda population a chance to hear from “two significant spokesmen” who had analysed the situation — Mr. Hollis and Dr. Wingate.

He added: “The programme also has young people who deliver some interesting viewpoints. We are hoping to create greater awareness of the issues of Southlands and the issues that surround each of the hotel developments.”

BEST is trying to use inventive and creative ways to assist the public to understand “highly complicated issues” surrounding hotel development and the potential strain on the Island’s environment through greater needs to cater for higher volumes of tourists staying on-Island.

Donna Tiffin of BEST, said: “Producing this video gave us the opportunity to present some man-on-the-street thinking. People we talked to are not against hotel development full stop, but they aren’t convinced that building new hotels necessarily equates with building jobs for Bermudians.

“While they remain open-minded about new hotels, they were specific in their objection to many features of the Southlands proposal. There is strong opposition to building on the shoreline, routing roads through tunnels and using the last remaining tracts of open space when we have old hotel sites sitting derelict that need to be revitalised.”