Lieutenant-Colonel David Burch, the Minister of Public Works, has announced that he will retire from politics at the next General Election.

In an interview with the Bermuda Broadcasting Company, Colonel Burch said he had made the decision last year.

“I was in the Class of 1998, so I have been doing this for 25 years,” he said.

“I think most people know I love Jamaica and spend a fair amount of time there. Last year on Boxing Day, I was having breakfast and thinking about life and things and thought that next year I would have been doing this for 25 years.

“It’s time to do something else and give someone else a turn.

“I came back and I advised the Premier in January that I would be retiring and that I would stay until the next election is called.”

Colonel Burch added that he told Mr Burt that he would help the Progressive Labour Party’s candidate in Constituency 27 (Warwick North Central) and would continue to support the party.

“My time is up,” he added. “I will leave with a lot of good memories and a lot of pride in what we have been able to accomplish over that period.

“The biggest thing that I feel the most pride about is the number of young Bermudians we have been able to help and who have been through this ministry and gone off into the private sector with not just a professional attitude towards what they do but a consciousness about bringing along the next generation behind them.”

Colonel Burch was educated at West End Primary, Southampton Glebe and Sandys Secondary. He later attended the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, and the School of Infantry, Warminster, both in England, and was appointed an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire for services to the military.

He went on to the Royal Bermuda Regiment, where he served as Commanding Officer from 1994 to 1997, retiring after almost 20 years of active military service.

He first ran for the PLP in Smith’s South in the 1998 General Election, then in a by-election in the same constituency in 2001. In the 2003 election, he ran in Hamilton South.

While he was unable to win a seat in the House of Assembly at that time, he was named a PLP senator in 1998 and served as Chief of Staff to Dame Jennifer Smith, during her time as the Premier.

He joined the PLP Cabinet as Minister without Portfolio in 2000, before taking on the housing brief in 2002. Colonel Burch went on to become Minister of Public Safety and Housing and, later, Minister of National Security.

He resigned from that role, and from the Senate, in 2011, after a disagreement with Paula Cox, who was then the Premier.

Colonel Burch won his seat in the House of Assembly in 2017 and, in the wake of the PLP’s victory in the polls, was named the Minister of Public Works.

During his time in that seat, he has championed efforts to replace and restore the island’s ageing infrastructure and highlighted efforts to hire and train Bermudians within the ministry.

In 2021, Colonel Burch was understood to have taken ill and Wayne Furbert served as Acting Minister of Public Works for a period of weeks before he returned to the role.

He recently apologised in the House of Assembly for the condition of the island’s roads, citing ageing equipment and global supply challenges.

However, he said that by the second quarter of 2024, the Government's new asphalt plant would arrive and be commissioned while staff would receive additional training to help enhance the process.

Colonel Burch set out a number of plans to address the state of roads in light of critical works as part of the Belco and wastewater projects.

“The sacrifice is worth the wait because, when completed, we will see the protection of our freshwater supplies, protection of our electrical infrastructure and ensuring that the sewage we produce is properly disposed of in a more environmentally conscious way,” he said.