Labour MP Stefan Buontempo said yesterday that while the average price per square metre of a plot for a terraced house was Lm330, the government was transferring Fort Chambray, a prime site, for Lm26 per square metre.

Speaking in parliament yesterday during the debate on the new emphyteutical grant of Fort Chambray, Dr Buontempo said a plot of land for a house in a location which was not a prime site cost Lm65,000 while Chambray was being transferred for an average of Lm5,070 per plot.

Had Chambray been valued according to normal rates it would have yielded the government Lm19 million. Yet the emphyteusis on the property was being transferred for a premium of Lm1.5 million.

Dr Buontempo said he had nothing against the developers and it was good that this project was being re-started. But this deal was unfair on the people and would mean that the developers would make millions in profit. The property, he said, should have been auctioned to yield maximum return. This was a prime site with much potential. It was scandalous that the fortifications had been allowed to deteriorate to such an extent, but the new contract was just as shameful.

Labour MP Joe Brincat said he welcomed the fact that the Chambray project was being taken over by Gozitans, but, unfortunately, this project still involved speculation on public property.

Dr Roberto Memmo and the previous developers had raped Fort Chambray, causing substantial damage to the historical fortifications. Clearly, if the Maltese wanted to develop their country they had to do it themselves.

But the way the fort was being transferred to the Caruana family amounted to a donation.

Dr Brincat insisted that unless a hotel was built within Fort Chambray, economic activity would not be long lasting. Such activity was needed to substitute the job losses from the manufacturing sector.

Anton Refalo, opposition spokesman for Gozo said the new contract on Fort Chambray was "a betrayal of the Maltese people." The government, he said, was repeating the mistake it made in 1993 by allocating this prime site at a low price.

But what was even worse was that the contract would not include an obligation for the developer to build and run a hotel.

This meant the project would only consist of property speculation. This was not the sustainable development which Gozo needed. It was not good enough for the government to argue that there were enough hotels in Gozo. What was needed was to raise tourist flows to Gozo.

Dr Refalo also insisted that the so-called Dar tat-Tabib and Polverista in Fort Chambray should not be passed on to the private sector.

He said the new contract was not the only blow coming Gozo's way. For it now appeared that Gozo Channel would stop the cargo ferry service from Sa Maison early next year. It would initially be claimed that the service was being suspended while one of the ferries, the Ta' Pinu, was docked for maintenance. But once the people got used to the absence of the service, it would be discontinued altogether.

Charles Buhagiar (MLP) said it would have been better had the government bought all the shares from Roberto Memmo and the other developers and then auctioned the site, rather than allowed dealings between private developers. And the government should not move goalposts. The project would now be exclusively for apartments, without a hotel. He was sure other developers would have shown interest had the original brief also been only for apartments. The same thing was happening in the case of the White Rocks project, where the developers now did not wish to build the planned hotel. At least in that case, the government was holding firm.

Roderick Galdes (MLP) insisted that the historical aspect of the fort should be protected. Damage caused to the fort included the historic British cemetery and a wall showing graffiti of up to 300 years ago. The developers needed to be made aware of the historical importance of both so that what remained could be protected.

Mr Galdes spoke of abuses that had occurred in Fort Chambray, such as illegal dumping and the removal of historical apertures. The government should be wary of taking new erroneous decisions.

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