Public spaces and high-rise buildings

Mepa seems intent on concluding certain projects prior to its chairman walking out for the last time from officialdom. Now comes Mepa's whine about how clever the men on its board are for allowing such hideous concrete rises to be built on a hill-top, and giving more open spaces to the "people". Under conventional norms, they argue, there would have been 1,300 abodes. Due to the merciful understanding of the people's plight, Mepa reduced this number to 800+.

May I remind one and all that the once idyllic village contained 700 units. Did anyone notice? Of course not, as the previous owners together with the not-so-shameful Planning Area Permits Board made sure that the buildings did not impinge on the natural beauty of the environs.

But the Nationalist Party keeps harping on the 1980s mess. It was a mess and we all agree. But the present blue government's is an insult to all Maltese. In the 1980s, the red Administration was an apprentice compared to the present regime, obviously with regard to the destruction of our beautiful island.

Nowadays, we have an authority that was set up to improve on the ex-PAPB. Of course it ameliorated the situation, but for whom? I must say that the Mepa board's is weird thinking, to say the least. Why not shrink the total number of potentially conventional units to two high risers of 650 floors each? Or, better still, permit the developers to create one high-rise of 1,300 floors? That way we may have more public open spaces!

Who do they think they're kidding? Lawrence Gonzi was already ultimately in charge of Mepa even when it was monitored (was it?) by George Pullicino.

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