Bermuda Properties has written to Government Minister Terry Lister asking him to pressurise the planning department to speed up building permits at the luxury Tucker's Point Club, The Royal Gazette can reveal.

The company is frustrated because it believes planning is taking too long in issuing building permits for 26 homes it is building on Ship's Hill, part of its $250 million hotel, housing and leisure development at the site of former Marriott Castle Harbour Hotel.

The company is thought to have hoped for blanket approval for houses which are identical, but the planning department is insisting on reviewing the applications on a case by case basis because the homes are on different sites.

In a bid to speed up the process, Bermuda Properties wrote to Mr. Lister, the Development, Opportunities and Government Services Minister, asking him to pressurise planning to issue the permits more quickly.

The planning department refused to release the letter yesterday, saying it was a private letter to Mr. Lister and was not part of the planning file. Bermuda Properties declined to comment.

Mr. Lister said yesterday he had asked the planning department to deal with the applications as quickly as possible because it was a high profile tourism development.

"I expect to keep a fair amount of pressure on the planning department to keep things moving, but I expect them to be professional, given the high profile impact from a tourism point of view," he said.

"I can't tell them that they must pass anything, nor do I desire to, but what I can do is ask them to be efficient and effective.

"Bermuda Properties has a series of permits relating to that property rather than a blanket one. What happens is that one is addressed and the next one is sort of left while the first one is being resolved.

"At some point someone says 'my gracious, I haven't heard anything about permits four, five and six'. That sort of thing has been a great challenge for Bermuda Properties on this project."

Mr. Lister said he asked planning to process the permits as quickly as possible.

"On the other hand, although I want them to be thorough, if that thoroughness means looking at things properly and they throw back questions and wait for answers, so be it," he said.

Building control officer, Nicky Gurret, who is issuing the permits for Tucker's Point, told The Royal Gazette: "You can't have a cookie cutter house and I can't give them a carte blanche. It has to be site specific, because the units are on different sites.

"The letter to the minister says 'please speed it up' and I believe I am working at a reasonable speed. The minister said to us 'do your best'. He's been very reasonable.

"With the current state of the economy, he was saying if there is money out there (for projects) can you please make every effort to get this done.

"As building control officer, I work with them, but I can't give a carte blanche because someone's in a rush. I have to make sure they are in compliance with codes."

Director of Planning Rudolph Hollis said: "The building control officer had a discussion with them about building permits, and some of the applications were lacking technical details.

"A number of buildings were going up which they said were identical and therefore they asked us to speed through the process without taking too much time, but some of them were different, so they required additional information."