“Tokenism” is at play in the revised special development order for the Fairmont Southampton resort, the Bermuda National Trust has charged.

Karen Border, the executive director of the environmental charity, said that the scaling down of the SDO fell short of the concerns of protesters against the development of the island’s biggest hotel.

The Government has backed the project as essential for restoring the island’s tourism product after the Fairmont Southampton closed its doors in 2020.

The hotel’s owner, Westend Properties Ltd, initially sought 147 residential units and 114 tourism units on the property, in addition to refurbishing the hotel building.

New plans that went online last week proposed dropping the total units from 261 to 250.

Tourism units were increased from 114 to 159, and the residential units proposed have dropped to 91, meaning the number of tourism bedrooms will increase from 311 to 441.

Ms Border said the redrawn proposal for the property “appears to be tokenism”.

“Taken as a whole, the changes are minimal and the plans still show massive overdevelopment.”

She added: “It may have been the game plan all along to propose something so outrageous that any scaling back would be considered a win.

“However, this new proposal does not go anywhere near enough to satisfy the concerns of the Bermuda National Trust, nor do we think the thousands of Bermudians who protested the original plans will be satisfied that their voices have truly been heard.”