A paradise to be enjoyed

Reading her heading, readers would think that Kate Nelson (Paradise Up For Grabs, August 9) is offering to give away some kind of paradise from her own private property. Reading on, one would find that Ms Nelson completely ignores the facts.

As she said, I really do love Ta' Cenc. Real Finanz is offering not only to protect the flora and fauna but also to enhance the whole Ta' Cenc area with the creation of a Heritage Park that together with the protected areas would be even larger than the whole of Valletta. This would be freely accessible to the public. Surely the residents of Sannat and Xewkija would be the ones to benefit most .

Would Ms Nelson or anybody else be willing to give up the right of access to nearly 60 per cent of their property to develop a mere 1.74 per cent footprint? Does she really believe that everybody should enjoy Ta' Cenc except its rightful owners?

Yes, I do love Ta' Cenc, not by words or banners but in deed. Where were all these great lovers of Ta' Cenc when we, the owners, removed over 300 bird trappers and hunters from the area? (See map showing all bird trapping sites). Neither Ms Nelson nor anybody else bothered to lift a finger to help. On the contrary, some people went out of their way to give the impression to everybody, especially the trappers, hunters and farmers (who were renting bird trapping sites on someone else's land) that the owners had no right to remove them.

As Ms Nelson knows very well:

No houses are proposed to be built anywhere at Ta' Cenc.

Having taken note of comments made even by the former Sannat council besides others, the one-storey villas previously proposed on the ridge, Tal-Gruwa, have been removed from the present proposal. So no development is proposed on the ridge.

The 57 villas previously proposed in the first EIS draft in the existing villa area near Mgarr ix-Xini have now not only been reduced to 38 but most of them are infilling the present villas belonging to third parties and the existing villas are the ones overlooking Mgarr ix-Xini.

As Ms Nelson already knows, it is in the interest of Real Finanz to cause the least inconvenience possible not just to the residents in the vicinity - Sannat and Xewkija - but also to the residents of their hotel and to finish all works as soon as possible.

Not only will paradise not be lost, but visitors will have the right to freely enjoy it and this without having to worry about being shot at by any hunter or face abuse by any bird trapper.

This is why Real Finanz would be more than willing to work hand in hand with any NGO - Ramblers' Association, BirdlLife, Wirt Ghawdex, Heritage Malta etc. - as long as no ulterior motives are involved. The Ta' Cenc proposal would be a limited, sustainable, mainly touristic development combined with Malta's first Heritage Park which would be beneficial to both the archaeological heritage of Gozo and to upmarket tourism development.