Site restoration

We refer to two paragraphs in the article Developer Must Rehabilitate Xemxija Site (April 12).

"The chairman of the Malta Environment and Planning Authority, Andrew Calleja said yesterday that after stabilising the site, the developer will have to submit a plan on how he intends to restore the site to its former state."

"In line with suggestions contained in the inquiry report, Mr Calleja said Mepa will be calling a meeting with the Chamber of Architects to discuss the fact that some architects knowingly assist clients to develop sites illegally."

In the case of the Hamrun underground wartime heritage, whose fate was originally highlighted by a journalist of this newspaper (August 9, 2000), unauthorised excavation in 2003 of the ground in a site known and proven to contain underground protected heritage was last year sanctioned by the Development Control Commission (PA/05495/02) when permission was granted for further excavation.

In this particular case, incontestable proof of the existence of an intact network of war-time shelters in the area in question was given by us to the developer and his architect as well as various divisions within Mepa, the Hamrun council, several heritage groups and the Minister for Rural Affairs and the Environment himself well before the initiation of the full development of the site way back in 2003. Later on, the developer was allowed to resume excavation a month before the very first hearing was due, in front of the Appeals Board, on the objections we raised against the DCC permit. A recent echo of this anomaly was the case of the Sliema baroque house where the developer was allowed to demolish the house even as appeals were lodged with the Appeals Board.

Our position in this particular case was also vindicated in report No 2005/103 made by Mepa's own Audit Officer in 2005. Following the publication of this report, we had to endure in this and other newspapers, as well as in Mepa's own website, a barrage of intimidating accusations of Nimby-ism and worse, by Mepa's own officials, with the honourable minister himself publicly joining the fray (Declawed, The Times, October 27, 2005,) a scarce 24 hours before the first appeals board hearing was due. It is worth noting that the honourable gentleman is incidentally responsible for selecting the various members sitting on Mepa's various boards and even some of the members of the Planning Appeals Board that decide on objections lodged against DCC decisions.

Permit no PA/05495/02 not only created a precedent in Hamrun and elsewhere for official sanctioning of excavation of sites wherein lies known inestimable underground heritage protected by the Heritage Act but made a mockery of Mepa's own regulations and the heritage law itself. Provisions of the Cultural Heritage Act entrusts Mepa, the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage, the local council and Heritage Malta with the well-being of local and national heritage. Such well-being, which includes the restoration to its original state of any site damaged by works, was ignored in this particular case. The exigencies of the Heritage Act were also confirmed last June in Parliament by two ministers including the Minister for Rural Affairs and the Environment himself, in answers made to parliamentary questions numbers 13137, 13138, 13139, 13140.

In view of all this, we cannot but not view with a certain amount of understandable scepticism certain statements of the sort quoted above that appeared in the article in question.