Dear Sir,

The Bermuda Environmental Sustainability Taskforce would like to comment on the recent Royal Gazette article titled “Minister rejects appeal and approves MP’s development plans” (March 30, 2023).

That story reported that an appeal to the Minister of Home Affairs (and Planning), Walter Roban, was submitted last year by three environmental organisations in respect to the approval by the Development Applications Board of planning application P0429-21 for the intensification of industrial activity at 79 Middle Road, Devonshire; the same site as the environmentally sensitive and valuable Devonshire Marsh.

Island Construction has tried many times for more than a decade to have that intensification approved, with continued refusal by the DAB ... until now.

It is worth remembering here the events of 2011 when planning applications for two government ministers — Zane DeSilva and Wayne Furbert — had been refused by the DAB, resulting in appeals to the Minister of the Environment (and Planning), who at that time was the same Mr Roban. At that time in Bermuda politics, there was to be a Cabinet reshuffle and just the day before Mr Roban was to be moved from the environment ministry, he controversially granted his fellow ministers’ appeals. While the record does not officially show that the grants of appeal were reversed, it can be presumed they were never acted upon because of the conflict of interest that the scenario reflected.

Fast forward to the most recent application (P0429-21) and Mr DeSilva’s latest attempt to get this increased development through the same government channels. This time, though, and quite surprisingly, it is approved by the DAB. We fully imagine that the planning department and the DAB approved this latest application just to get rid of it once and for all.

For many good reasons, we lodged an appeal — to the approval of P0429-21 by the DAB — and the minister, in his wisdom, referred the appeal to an independent inspector. I write “in his wisdom” because I’m sure he wouldn’t want anyone to think he would be biased based on the circumstances of 2011 and on the obvious relationship he would have with the applicant being a fellow government member. Claims of a conflict of interest would certainly have been a reasonable position for him to take.

The independent inspector gave a very lengthy and reasoned response and recommended that the appeal be upheld, and the approval given by the DAB be reversed. Very surprisingly, Mr Roban has disregarded the recommendation of the independent inspector and dismissed the appeal, thereby upholding the approval for his fellow government member’s application for intensification of industrial activity on the wetlands site at 79 Middle Road, Devonshire.

Bermuda urgently needs enlightened leadership in regard to the development of the finite landmass that we call home. There is a natural conflict between landowners wanting to maximise their return on investment and the needs of the population to have development managed in such a way that does not overdevelop our green and environmentally sensitive areas, but seeks appropriate solutions to achieve a balance.

In this matter, we would have expected Mr Roban to have taken a more ethical stand and declared a conflict of interest given the controversy of his 2011 actions. It is absolutely our position that Mr Roban’s decision is worthy of an application for judicial review.

As a final point of clarification, I would like to correct Mr DeSilva’s claim that our appeal application was late. That is incorrect. This was an important and very complex appeal, which required professional consultation. We requested and were granted a short extension of time for making the appeal case.

KIM SMITH

Executive director

Bermuda Environmental Sustainability Taskforce