Premier Jennifer Smith has stepped in to prevent the dismantling of the old Dolphin Quest facility at Whaler Inn Beach, according to National Liberal Party vice-chairman Graeme Outerbridge

The old facility, which is on property owned by the Fairmont Southampton Princess, was first built to house the dolphins in 1996.

In the planning agreement executed at that time it was stated that if no dolphins were in the facility for six months, the facility would be taken down and the shoreline restored to its natural condition.

In 1999, Dolphin Quest abandoned the facility after it was damaged by Hurricane Gert, moving to the new Dockyard venue.

In 2000, the Southampton Princess got permission to rebuild the facility, however the plan was never executed.

"It seems Planning was moving to enforce the agreement whereby the Southampton Princess would have to restore the facility to its natural condition," said Mr. Outerbridge. "But the hotel was stalling because of the cost."

According to Mr. Outerbridge, the cost of removing the old Dolphin Quest facility now would be greater than what it cost to build it ten years ago.

Then, said Mr. Outerbridge: "The Premier had a private meeting with (Southampton Princess managing director) Norman Mastalir and chief operating officer (of the Fairmont Group of Hotels Chris Chill)."

Representation was made in that meeting last November to delay the action against the hotel. "The Premier intervened on behalf of the hotel," said Mr. Outerbridge, giving the Southampton Princess yet more time to decide what to do with the old facility.

"Our concern is that if the Planning agreement spelled out the terms very clearly it's wrong to do that (make a change) without due process," said Mr. Outerbridge. "It has to involve a public process if the rules are changed after the fact."

With the change made in a private meeting, however, he said any original objectors to the project - such as the NLP and the National Trust - were not given the opportunity to voice their opinion. "This is not something that can simply be ignored," he said.

"I'm not going to debate what Graeme said," said Southampton Princess managing director Norman Mastalir. "I don't know where he got a lot of the information in those statements but there were inaccuracies. I don't want to say more on that.

"We are still negotiating with Government about the facility, but we intend to do something with it... I am hopeful of reaching an agreement soon. We are working on it. Graeme is obviously not happy with the speed at which that is happening."

The hotel's plans all revolve around the removal of the facility, said Mr. Mastalir, however that involves a great deal of discussion with many organisations that need to be kept happy. He said those involved included the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, the Department of Planning, the Ministry of the Environment and the Southampton Princess.

"We intend to be good environmental stewards," said Mr. Mastalir.

However the National Trust and the NLP objected to the facility down on the Whaler Inn Beach ten years ago because of what Mr. Outerbridge called "wise knowledge" that "the only thing that would be harmed in the long run would be the Bermudian environment".

So far, he added: "that's an accurate assessment".

"Fairmont need to stop being obstructionist," he said. "Economic imperatives always take the place of environmental imperatives over there... We don't want to go into another tourism season with a major beach facility at one of our best hotels looking an eyesore."

He also called on Dolphin Quest to take some responsibility for the clean-up, even though they may not legally required to do so.

"Dolphin Quest have not played any kind of a role in resolving this problem," he said. "They are intricately involved in the development - it never would have happened without Dolphin Quest."

Dolphin Quest General Manager Christine told The Royal Gazette: "As far as I understand it, the Southampton Princess are being held liable and are going to clean it up. I don't know the details of that, I didn't know about any requests for an extension."

However, she said, if asked, Dolphin Quest would certainly assist in the clean-up if asked. "We want to see the area in an appropriate manner," she said. "We support what is required but understand the Southampton Princess is going to be following through on their obligations."

Premier Jennifer Smith was unavailable for comment as she is in Switzerland this week.