Ta' Cenc and the Local Plan

I was surprised to read the intemperate response of August 25 by the Public Relations Officer of the Malta Environment and Planning Authority on Ta' Cenc and the Local Plans.

While Din l-Art Helwa is adamantly against any major development taking place in one of Gozo's most outstanding natural landscapes, to accuse the association of distorting the facts could not be further from the truth.

Din l-Art Helwa expressed its concern about the obvious discrepancy between the Structure Plan and the newly approved Local Plan only after having conducted a most careful study of the precise terms of both.

Misleadingly, the Mepa PRO quotes only from the Local Plan without allowing readers the opportunity to see how it deviates from the detailed terms of the over-riding Structure Plan.

If she had done this, readers would have concluded for themselves that the Structure Plan - which has the status of law and is binding on, inter alia, the Planning Authority - plainly does not permit any development on the Ta' Cenc plateau near Mgarr ix-Xini. By being selective in what she writes she fails to make it clear that it is the recently approved Local Plan which for the first time introduces the possibility of "development in the lower part of the plateau (near Mgarr ix- Xini)", thus opening up a loophole which could be exploited for possible construction to take place in this area.

In approving this Local Plan, therefore, the Minister has clearly gone beyond the parameters set out in the Structure Plan, which is the fundamental and over-riding source of authority for planning purposes.

The all-important Structure Plan, drawn up in 1992, is commendably clear in seeking to protect the outstanding beauty of Ta' Cenc. It states: "The area of Ta' Cenc, Gozo, from east of the Mgarr ix- Xini inlet to the village of Sannat, will be further studied as a potential demonstration project of high quality for both:

1. Malta's first National Park (World Conservation definition) covering the majority of the area.

2. Malta's first multi-ownership tourism hotel development, in the vicinity of the existing Ta' Cenc hotel."

The Structure Plan also goes on to say: "The height of buildings will be restricted to one and two storeys with the exception of taller features such as stone-built windmills, look-out towers, domes and spires. The blending of the hotel into the landscape, and the use of best traditional features which are characteristic of Gozo, are of particular importance." The hotel development "in the vicinity of the existing Ta' Cenc hotel" is therefore clearly intended in the Structure Plan as an extension or enlargement of the existing hotel with its girna-like structures, not the 57 large villas, 49 bungalows, a five-storey hotel, 66 "tourist units" and a full-size golf course with the possibility of further development, being proposed by the developer, to which Din l-Art Helwa and many thousand petitioners have strenuously objected.

I am disappointed that Mepa, which is the guardian of Malta's environment and planning law, should react so negatively to a perfectly valid exposure of a discrepancy between their recently approved Local Plan and the over-riding Structure Plan to which it should relate and to which it is subordinate .

Din l-Art Helwa has neither distorted the facts regarding Ta' Cenc, nor has it been ignorant of them. The recently approved Local Plan is in direct contravention of the Structure Plan as a result of opening up the possibility of construction in an area of Ta' Cenc - "the lower part of the plateau (near Mgarr ix-Xini)" - previously excluded from development by it. The sooner this anomaly - whether deliberate or inadvertent - is corrected the better. Not to do so would amount to a serious dereliction of duty.