Lija council vows to protect its 'border'

The Lija council is objecting to an application for a new factory to be built outside development zones on the border between Lija and Mosta.

Besides being ODZ, the proposed factory would take good agricultural land, the council argues, adding that it would also blur the natural buffer of fields which exists between the two towns.

The area is located on Triq Pantar and Triq ta' Torba which leads from Mosta to Attard, running along Lija's border.

The local plan approved in 2006 highlights the importance of this buffer zone, describing it as a "strategic open gap" that separates Lija from Mosta, Attard and Naxxar.

The Malta Environment and Planning Authority had actually already refused an application for the same site twice. However, the council does not want to take any chances with the third application.

In a report prepared for one of the refused applications, the case officer had commented that giving the go-ahead to such a development would create a dangerous precedent for other such applications.

In effect, the area already does have a few factories scattered alongside the road that separates Mosta from Lija but these have been there for a long time and no new development has taken place in the past years.

In another case, Lija PN major Ian Castaldi Paris last month filed an appeal against the contentious permit granted for a block of flats to be built next to the iconic Lija Belvedere and even wrote to the Prime Minister to register the council's disagreement.

Comments

Charles Camilleri (3 weeks, 3 days ago)

I do not see any reason why there should be a third application once the two previous ones have been refused. Or is it a case of knock, knock and knock until the door is opened. Enough with these comedies.

Collen Isherwood (3 weeks, 3 days ago)

Could some one perhaps explain what is meant by outside developement zones, as my understanding is thi means no evelopement, but seems here in \malta it means the opposite?/

Chris Ebejer (3 weeks, 3 days ago)

More land speculation to build factories while there are tens of them left empty. while factories contribute for the growth of economy but please not rape the few remaining fields around picturesque Lija area.