Government appeared to admit last night that it had started work on a cruise ship terminal building at Dockyard without final planning permission and may have breached its own rules regarding new developments.

A lengthy press release from Premier Ewart Brown's press secretary announced that retroactive planning approval for the final phase of the multimillion dollar second cruise ship pier was being sought by the Ministry of Tourism and Transport.

It said a second pier at Dockyard was of "urgent national importance" and any delay preventing it and the terminal building opening before April 29 – when the first mega ship of the season is due to arrive – would cost the local economy $16 million.

The 1,600-word statement said an application for a Special Development Order (SDO) for the terminal building was ditched after it became clear one could not be granted before the end of April.

Instead, tourism bosses submitted an application on January 6 for retrospective planning approval for work already begun at Dockyard, including land reclamation from the sea.

A line near the bottom of yesterday's press release read: "A number of elements within the overall planning process may not have proceeded directly according to the required sequence."

Asked to clarify what that meant, Glenn Jones, Dr. Brown's press secretary, said: "There was a set out plan to do this project and what has happened is that they have reached a point where they have decided to take an alternate route to get to the final destination."I think the release is saying it hasn't followed the intended process.

They have taken a different route."Planning permission was given in principle for the entire $35 million pier project at the end of 2007, but only phase one of the scheme – construction of the pier – got final approval.The release said that due to the "magnitude" of the project, the Department of Planning advised the Ministry of Tourism and Transport to ask for an SDO for phase two, which it did last April.

But a spanner was put in the works in December when, according to Mr. Jones, "a land reclamation agreement became mired in administrative delays".

In the House of Assembly on December 8, Opposition MPs persuaded Government to suspend plans to push through a land reclamation bid for 8.2 acres for the mega cruise ship dock.

The matter was adjourned for further consultation but without the transfer of land ownership and a land reclamation agreement between the Ministry of Works and Engineering and the West End Development Corporation, an SDO could not be approved.

The press release said: "Due to a number of legal requirements it was not until December 2008 that it became clear that the land reclamation agreement and subsequent SDO would not be completed prior to the opening of the new cruise pier. "A retroactive SDO approval was considered but was later deemed an untenable option legally. Consequently, the decision was made to resort back to the original plan and pursue retroactive planning approval for the phase two work."

The application seeks permission for land reclamation using clean fill to create a 58,735 sq ft ground transportation area; a seawall and excursion dock; paving and landscaping; widening the existing North Arm Bridge to 42 feet; installation of new security gates; a terminal building and a seasonal ferry docking area.

The second pier is needed to accommodate mega ships now that many of the cruise ship industry's smaller vessels, which were regular visitors to Hamilton and St. George's, have been retired or sold off.

Mr. Jones' press release said that, since the larger boats couldn't fit through the passages to Hamilton and St. George's, a mega cruise ship dock was vital to the Island's tourism industry and the lack of one in the 2009 season would cause "significant losses" to Government coffers.

The statement said the Ministry of Tourism had been "challenged" to meet the new cruise ship pier completion schedule of April 2009, but had placed "great emphasis and diligence" on meeting all planning and environmental requirements.