Get tougher, Mepa told

Nature Trust has expressed deep concern about the fact that applications in outside-development zones continue to be submitted and resubmitted after being refused.

It said it had objected to 130 such applications last year and urged the Development Control Commission (DCC) at the Malta Environment and Planning Authority to get tougher on such applications and vote against them.

A case in point was the application for development in Lunzjata Valley, Gozo, which, Nature Trust said, should be rejected by the DCC.

The site earmarked lies alongside a protected Special Area of Conservation and is in a prominent place overlooking the valley.

The valley is scheduled for its ecological importance and high landscape value.