Arthur Hodgson attracted notoriety as well as praise during his stint as Environment minister. Key moments included:

In 1999 a controversial extension at Mr. Hodgson's church, Crawl Gospel Hall, which had been rejected several times by planners and independent inspectors, was pushed through by Acting Environment Minister Nelson Bascome while Mr. Hodgson was off the island. Mr. Hodgson later: "I was out of the country. The acting Minister dealt with it. I was the lawyer and it's my church. I was in a rather difficult situation. I could defend this decision at a push."

In 2000 Mr. Hodgson agreed to over-rule a covenant to protect land and instead grant an access road through the Chaplin Estate in Harbour Road, Warwick. The Development Applications Board had turned down an application for the access road four times. It sparked a lengthy court battle, won by Government, which now means agreements reached between landlords and Government not to develop open spaces no longer offer long term protection.

Also in 2000 Mr. Hodgson over-ruled his technical officers who had stopped building on Dr. Brown's Smith's home because re-fabricated panels were being used instead of the specified traditional building materials.

In a 2001 interview Mr. Hodgson spoke of his sadness at agreeing to build the new Berkeley on woodland. He said: "As Environment Minister and being so behind the principle of sustainable development, I was sorry to have to sign a development order that was to destroy so much woodland, in what is already an overcrowded area of Bermuda. And, at the same time, destroying a listed building. It saddened me to have to do it ? but I signed it." And he said that sometimes he even found some of his colleagues failing to really appreciate or fully understand what sustainable development was all about.