Premier Ewart Brown has challenged environmentalists to speak out on a plan for a tourist resort at the former US Naval Air Station at Morgan's Point.

He referred to the Island's green lobby during a presentation to the House of Assembly on Monday on Cabinet Office spending, including $572,000 allocated for the Sustainable Development Unit.

Dr. Brown told MPs: "It's not my responsibility nor my interest to dictate to the environmentalists in Bermuda as to how they should conduct their business.

"But I should tell you that until they are able to broaden their agenda and until they are able to be as opposed to development in one area as they are another, then the public will not believe that they are a credible entity, because it just looks a little too selective."

The Tourism Minister's comments follow remarks he made on the Everest DaCosta radio show on February 25 about the Morgan's Point plan, which he has described as having "too much concrete".

The plan has been put forward by the owners of the pristine Southlands estate in Warwick, who agreed in 2008 to swap their property for 80 acres at Morgan's Point.

The swap would save Southlands from development and allow it to be preserved as a national park. But the two sides have yet to agree on a plan for the brownfield Morgan's Point site and legally complete the exchange.

Dr. Brown told Mr. DaCosta that if the idea of a five-star hotel at Southlands caused Bermuda Environmental and Sustainability Taskforce (BEST) and its chairman Stuart Hayward to have "conniptions" then "this plan for Morgan's Point will cause them to have a seizure".

"It's just very dense," he said. "It's a very dense development — that's why it hasn't gained favour with the [Cabinet] hotel subcommittee."

BEST responded in a statement: "It is highly disingenuous of the Premier to suggest that 'those people' who objected to Southlands should now be objecting to the Morgan's Point development.

"The foremost reason for no comment from environmental groups is that the plans for developing Morgan's Point have been kept secret, along with everything else about the land swap, at least until very recently."

BEST said if the Premier genuinely wanted comment on the plans he should make them available for public scrutiny.

"The developers aren't required to make the plans public unless they go through the planning process. We hear there are a variety of different plans for the site and the possibility of a new developer who would undoubtedly bring new plans.

"It would be a waste of our energy to be analysing every rumoured plan. The Premier and his committee have maintained tight control over the flow of information to the public about developments at Morgan's Point — land owned by the people of Bermuda, of which the government of the day are stewards."

Dr. Brown talked at length on Monday about the concept of sustainable development, admitting the term was "alien" to most members of the public.

He said sustainable director Charles Brown was working overtime "on how to make the concept more understandable and how to take away the mystique that surrounds the topic at the moment".