With speculation rampant that Government will today announce that it has granted a special development order to the developers of the Southlands Jumeirah Resort, this editorial is probably too little, too late.

But that does not mean that it has no purpose.

In essence, this debate has been about whether Bermuda needs a new first class resort hotel on the South Shore that should provide major benefits to tourism or whether it should keep what is one of the few large pieces of open space in that part of Warwick relatively unspoiled.

This newspaper has already made its opinion clear that this is a piece of land that should be preserved for future generations of Bermudians to enjoy.

Many of the arguments against the development have been well aired, but in the end, the problem here is that once the land has been built on it will never be available again for the enjoyment of Bermudians.

It can be argued with some justice that the privately held land has never been accessible to the public, unlike, for example, the Botanical Gardens.

But that does not reduce its value and importance. Once it is built on, it will never be available again, and an important green lung in a heavily developed part of the Island will have been removed.

In principle, this newspaper supports new hotel developments, because it is important for the tourism industry to increase the number of beds available and to raise the bar generally in terms of quality of service.

However, with SDOs having already been granted for the old Ritz Carlton site adjoining the Southlands property and the Hamilton hotel property at Par la Ville Road, and the Lantana and Club Med properties remain vacant, so there’s no shortage of places on which to built or redevelop.

On that basis, it does not make sense, in spite of Jumeirah’s excellent reputation, to develop open land, even without the critical environmental concerns and the damage that may be done to the foreshore.

If Government does issue the SDO, it will have been a short term, politically expedient decision which generations of Bermudians will live to regret. Because Government already has very little credibility on the environment, it can do no further damage to its reputation in that respect, but it will have missed a chance to restore faith in its commitment to sustainable development.

Union anger

It should come as no surprise to anyone that the three unions most concerned with education have come together to complain about the lack of consultation over education reform.

This is not the first time they have raised their concerns, but since they earlier went public, there seems to have been no further movement on the issue.

By and large, this newspaper supports the changes proposed by the Hopkins review and recognises they should be adopted as a package and not be seen as something to be cherry picked, where the easy decisions get made and the hard choices get put off.

But the reforms are doomed to fail if the committee tasked with their implementation fails to keep the administrators, principals and teachers involved. According to the unions, at least, that’s exactly what is happening.

Involving the unions — and parent representatives — will inevitably string out the process, but that’s a small price to pay if it means the education reforms proposed will actually work.