Redevelopment plans for the Fairmont Southampton hotel, including any application for a special development order, will go before the public, a Cabinet minister has pledged.

Walter Roban, the home affairs minister, said he was unaware of what route the developer of the hotel would take with its plans.

He added: “What I can say is that they will have to follow planning law.

“If they desire to make an application for an SDO, there is a clear legislative process to doing that.

“I believe they may have started some of that process with some public consultation.”

West End Properties went public this week with a proposal including building villas that would add a further 195 rooms to the hotel’s inventory of 593. However, it did not say how many villas were planned.

An advertisement by the property owner also indicated that an SDO was “in the process of being submitted” and would not differ substantially from one issued at the resort in 2009 under its previous ownership.

Mr Roban said that public disclosure would include an environmental impact assessment of any plans.

He said that would include “a public consultation process”, adding: “I will be required, if at some point there is an application for an SDO, to be very public about that process”.

“I await, like everybody else, what the developers will present. They have been in consultation with Planning on the steps they have to take.”

Mr Roban said he had not yet viewed anything definitive, adding: “That is when I will give an opinion.”