Editorial

Developers have raised the hackles once more, this time at Lija, not a new place to be assailed by entrepreneurs.

Do you remember the long-running legal saga over the white dust at Lija, emanating from a stone factory in the vicinity many years ago? That cause, in favour of the trees of the locality, was championed by Miss Strickland, who lived in the locality and whose villa is now the seat of the Strickland Foundation.

Lija is now facing the possibility of another 'intrusion'. The locality's council has unanimously approved a motion against a proposed application to develop a home for the elderly on an ancient olive grove site in Mosta Street.

The council says there are over 40 olive trees which are 400 years old on the site, and they are protected by law.

The site also forms part of a valley which is therefore protected, and is outside the development zone.

Apparently, the application to develop the site has already been turned down in 1996, it is claimed, but the developers retort that the 1996 application was for a private residence of a completely different nature.

Alternattiva Demokratika has been very angry and in full support of the refusal. It says, "AX Holdings is once again involved in a proposal that lies outside the boundaries of the development scheme. We are concerned that a number of building contractors, with an abysmal environmental record, are always behind the development of open spaces. Unfortunately instead of investing their money in a creative way to make Malta more beautiful, these people are always proposing the building of more open spaces."

AX Holdings, however, claims that it is doing a good deed by building a home for the elderly close to where they live and not on prime land, so that prices the elderly will have to pay will be low. In the case of the Lija project, the site is adjacent to a built-up area, so the impact would be minimal, it argues.

With regard to the trees, Mr Anglu Xuereb, of AX Holdings, claims that most would be retained and the rest transplanted. He goes on to propose large gardens and open spaces.

The proposed project, he says, would provide for small units with a kitchenette/living area and terrace. Other facilities would include a chapel, multi-purpose hall, dining area and a clinic.

It sounds too good to be true - and in fact it isn't. It is not a good idea to build up in the area proposed, to endanger the open space, the air, the trees, the people.

Let us keep the area it the way it is. Forty olive trees four hundred years old should not be fed to the developers like Christians to the lions. The beauty of the valley should be enhanced not bitten into.

Lija is one of the picture sites of Malta, even though new development has gone up in certain parts. It is very important that even in these new areas, now considered part of Attard, development is strictly controlled as it is too close to the heart of the village.

With a real will, homes for the elderly can go up elsewhere and be beautiful without destroying beauty.