Decision on waste plant has been deferred for sixth time

The Planning Appeals Board (PAB) has once again deferred the appeal hearing for the construction of a private waste sorting plant in Wied Garnaw.

The private bid to sort waste in Wied Garnaw has been going on for four years. The Malta Environment and Planning Authority rejected the application twice and the PAB has been hearing the appeal for two years.

The Save Wied Garnaw Action Group insisted that according to the Structure Plan this application should never have been considered, let alone reconsidered and heard again at appeal level.

The action group said it believes that the appeal process is being dragged out unnecessarily.

Last Wednesday the sixth hearing was due. However, one PAB member was absent and in such a case the chairman asks the registered parties if they want a deferment. The developer opted for a deferment, and so the case has been put back by another four months to September.

"The group believes that such repeated deferments, which affect many appeals, are making the process unacceptably long and unnecessarily expensive. While PAB members are paid for all the deferred hearings they attend, common citizens often attend at considerable personal cost and sacrifice."