The owner of a fast-food restaurant chain has called out the Government for stalling his planning application over “ludicrous” demands for an electric-vehicle charging port.

However, the Cabinet Office responded last night that it had been maligned with “a total misrepresentation of facts try to portray the Department of Planning as the classic scapegoat” — with options remaining to resolve the issue.

The war of words came after David Furbert, the owner of Mr Chicken, said that plans to move his Heron Bay restaurant across the street to the former Sousa’s Landscaping in Southampton had been halted over strange and unreasonable demands.

He added that his most recent problem came after the Department of Planning refused to let him do any work until he made space for a charging port for electric vehicles.

Mr Furbert explained: “They said, in writing, that they want Mr Chicken to put in a vehicle charging station on the property.

“Next they’re going to tell us to put a pump out there for people to pump up their tyres.”

He added: “What other restaurant, or any building for that matter, that’s being constructed right now has been told they need to put a charging port for somebody’s car?

“Why should I bear the expense, my money, to charge somebody else’s car?

“This is ridiculous; I’ve never heard of such a thing.”

The Cabinet Office ministry, which insisted Mr Furbert knew since December of the requirement for a charging port if plans were for ten or more parking spaces, responded that the application had been assessed under the Bermuda Plan 2018 — and that the policy was “not discretionary and thus cannot be waived”.

The ministry added that Mr Furbert had recourse to further options, including cutting the number of parking spaces to do away with the need for the charging port, or launching an appeal to the minister.

Mr Furbert, who has paid rent on the lot since June, said that he submitted his initial planning application that same month, then again in August when he learnt it was submitted under the wrong heading.

He said that his plans were approved at the end of November and he applied for a building permit that he received two weeks ago.

But last week, according to the businessman, his architect was contacted by someone from the Department of Planning, who barred the project from moving forward until space for a charging port was established.

He said that the department also wanted the site to have a fence around its southern section to protect a plot of “agricultural land”.

Mr Furbert hit back against this demand, saying: “Obviously, they’ve never even come up to this property because if you look outside this building you’ll see there’s a fence all around this entire property.

“The fence has been here for well over a year, so you know they haven’t been down here to inspect the area.”

He added: “There’s no agriculture down there whatsoever – there hasn’t been for a while.”

Mr Furbert said that all of his necessary applications otherwise had been approved.

He added that the length of the process significantly delayed his plans to move into the new space around Cup Match time last year.

He said that owner of the space, The MarketPlace Group, offered him a reduction on his rent for a few months.

But Mr Furbert added “that period of time is up”.

He said that his frustration was aimed at an individual, whom he said came up with the demand despite all applications being approved.

But he added that this was reflective of a larger problem of an “abuse of power”.

Mr Furbert claimed that the Progressive Labour Party’s 30 seats in Parliament reduced it willingness to hold itself accountable.

He said that this abuse was evident after several small businesses accused the Department of Customs of withholding goods, and when Malachi Symonds, now a One Bermuda Alliance election candidate, shelved his farming business over planning complications.

Mr Furbert added that the behaviour went against the Government’s promise to prop up small business.

He said: “When St Regis had issues, the Government stepped in and those issues were squashed in a matter of days.

“But whenever I try to contact someone about this issue, I get no response.”

The Department of Customs has defended its procedure, saying that all goods were cleared according to the law, and said it was willing to work with the relevant businesses and agents to settle any disputes.

The Department of Planning also defended itself in the wake of Mr Symonds’s farm closure, stating that the problems stemmed from a misunderstanding and that the farmer was offered much leeway in the past.

Mr Furbert said that residents shared concerns about the move, including increased traffic, litter, the smell of grease, and noise late at night.

However, he added that none of these concerns had been brought up in the nearly 40 years since Mr Chicken had been in operation across the street from the planned site.

Mr Furbert said that he may seek legal advice “if I don’t get any results”.

He added that, despite concerns, he believed the Southampton community would rally behind him.