Hospital permit

I refer to Josie Muscat's letter Sliema Hospital (February 13).

The application referred to by Dr Muscat, PA1873/01, was accepted by the Malta Environment and Planning Authority on April 23, 2001. It was an outline development application for the construction of a new private hospital in Zejtun.This was a major project involving a hospital in a location that is outside the development zone, which required three major studies: an agricultural impact assessment, a waste management plan and a visual impact assessment.

These studies were requested in November 2001 and the applicant submitted them in June 2002. Planning permission in principle was granted just three months later on September 30, 2002. That Dr Muscat in the meantime chose to conclude negotiations for a hospital that was already up and running is a decision that would have no impact on the decisions of the authority.

Considering that the studies by the applicant took six months to compile while the evaluation and decision took three months, the allegation by the author that Mepa "...sat for a long, long time" on this application is not correct... by a long, long shot.