Thursday, 3rd July 2008 - 10:47CET
UPDATE 2: Fort Cambridge project approved, MLP demands explanation
(Adds MLP statement)
The Malta Environment and Planning Authority has unanimously approved the Fort Cambridge development project after fresh plans were submitted by the developers.
Approval was given at a turbulent board meeting which kicked off on the wrong note when reporters discovered a press release announcing the approval even before the meeting had started.
The statement was found in one of the press packs picked up by the reporters.
The issue was raised during the meeting and the chairman Austin Walker, defended the board, saying that MEPA had also prepared a press release in case the project was rejected. Although people who live near Fort Cambridge asked to see it, he simply said "no" and refused to look into the matter before the board went ahead with the vote.
The controversial project involves the building of 20-storey apartment blocks on the site of the former Holiday Inn. The original plan was rejected last month and the developers presented a new plan explaining that although the apartment blocks would have 20 storeys, the height would total that of 16 storeys.
The discussion was a heated one with the developers' camp and that of neighbours shouting at each other across the room, particularly over the impact which the development will have on traffic in the area.
Neighbours argued that this project, along with Midi at Tigne' and another anticipated mega project in the area would massively overload the traffic grid, increase pollution and make life miserable. The developers defended themselves on the basis that the traffic impact would not be that great while MEPA officials took the view that the traffic problem needed to be addressed holistically and not in connection with this specific project.
The Labour Party this evening demanded an explanation from the Prime Minister and the chairman of the Malta Environment and Planning Authority (MEPA) over how the MEPA statement on the approval of the Fort Cambridge development project was distributed to journalists even before the board hearing on the project had started.
The MLP said this incident raised very serious questions on the operations of the authority and reduced public consultation to a farce. The incident and the attitude of the MEPA officials continued to undermine public confidence in the institution.
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Comments
E.Grech I never expressed any opinion in favour or against the mega buildings you mentioned although I always believed that we should have been building high years ago and not only in Sliema so that virgin land is protected. My point was to make you understand that ( whether hundreds or thousands) of Maltese workers earn their living from this industry and that the builing industry does not consists only of Tigne or the mega projects you mentioned..
I also agree with you that if possible we build only what we require but that will bring us in a situation were the supply will be equal to the demand which will bring higher costs especially for first buyers.
Mr.Camilleri all in all our debate was friendly and civilised one with both of us have no interest of making money from this industry. Your point was to keep our country as beutiful as possible and mine to protect jobs in this industry.
I think we both had a good intention
You will I hope have noticed the amount of empty flats there are in Malta(not just in Tigne),in all probability this has something to do with the way that business is done on this Island when it comes to building apartment.
In a block of ten for example:
Builder gets one or two flats in lieu of payment.
The Plumber/electrician gets a flat .
So do the bathroom suppliers.
One or two flats go to the original owner of the land
That takes care of six of the ten flats
Developer makes profit on four flats for a very small cash outlay.. The press release tells us that 60% have been sold on plan. This excites and we too buy. Result is, we find ourselves in a two third unoccupied building.The suppliers hold on their flats .Very clever accountancy puts apartments down to justifiable losses or Company expansion with very little tax payable and that, when sold. Result, negative equity for Joe Public
Carpe Diem.
Mr Philip Micallef seems to think that prices have stabilised and that the simple laws of demand and supply hold in malta's economy. I disagree as the investor behaviour in malta defies the pattern seen in the rest of the market economy.
Malta's economy is never as affected as other stronger economies because of government protectionism making the laws of demand and supply useless in this sort of discussion.
What we have here with the whole sorry state of affairs is one set of persons of dubious intellect and morals covering up for their friends of equally debatable mental agility.
Truly the ball is squarely in Mr L Gonzi's court and if he thinks that ignoring this issue will make it go away, he has another think coming!
You mentioned balance. That is what I am talking about. The projects I have mentioned are all about imbalance (powered by greed).
Fishermen have been fishing for a very long time, without any problems. When people started fishing slightly more than they needed themselves, in order to trade, that wasn’t really a problem either. The problem started when people starting exaggerating, and now many important fish are becoming extinct. Extinction is no joke, because it is by definition irreversible.
—
I note that you toned “thousands” down by an order of magnitude to “hundreds” once you start excluding immigrant-workers… rightly so.
Philip Camiller, I got your point when saying that you are not a dissappionted MLP supporter but you could be also a Nationalist who did not collect your vote,or else did not vote like hundreds of Sliema residents did, these people are also disappointed You could be also one of those hundreds of Sliema residents who for years have been selling their properties for Millions of Liri and now you are moaning about traffic and high building. You concluded stating: As regards the rest of his argument, any other comment, is superfluous. You concluded stating: As regards the rest of his argument, any other comment, is superfluous. Dear Phillip such comments are done when some one loses his argument
So what? There is also a demand for cocaine. Should the government therefore sell land to drug dealers so that they may grow coca leaves? No.
Don't compare Malta with other countries please, it's like comparing Dust with Gold.
Do you honestly think the PM will ask him to resign? If he does i will be astounded.
Hope all well
Chris
The property market has stabilised with developers not asking astronomical amounts of money for properties. Those who don't reduce their prices will not sell - its as simple as that. And do you think the developers don't know it?
Properties like T-10 are selling like hot cakes at very high prices. There IS a demand for this type of property and it IS selling, whatever doom and gloom is being predicted.
Study economics and you will find out that price is dependent on the laws of Demand and Supply nothing else matters .
You have no idea of what you are saying, and you are probably getting your information off the news. Go for a walk to Tigné, and you will see that the “thousands of other workers” you are defending are Sicilians, Africans and Eastern Europeans. Please do go, and return to this comment section and tell everyone whether I am saying the truth or not.
We are fooled to believe that we need more mega-projects. The developers attempt to justify by saying that they will generate work for the Maltese, but at the end of the same sentence we are told that there are not enough Maltese to do this work, or that they don’t want to do it, which is then used to justify immigration. Basically we are fooled all the time.
You are all being fooled like this because you are half asleep. Wake up!!!
The truth is that *there are* enough Maltese workers to support the construction that is *necessary* and, naturally, there are not enough Maltese workers to support unnecessary projects.
Nobody had doubts that the project would have been accepted, irrespective of how good or bad it may have been. What do you expect for a project to be built on land which the GOVERNMENT SOLD TO PRIVATE BODIES ???
However, if it was going to be the most perfect project ever, the fact remains that for transperancy in decisions to be shown (at least shown), the press release should have never been ready beforehand.
As regards stopping all ODZ developments .... wow ... didn`t we read your comments somewhere else defending the MP who leased his ODZ land for a project which was going to net him millions ??? CONSISTENCY IS NOT JUST ABOUT BEING THE SPIN-DOCTOR OF ALL THAT IS BLUE !!
Please how can one compare New york City or Toronto with Malta, to begin with, the way of life, work, building, weather, etc. etc., I have been to New York many times, in winter and summer, on a hot day in N.Y. you will suffocate, imagine skyscrapers in Malta where we have eight months of summer, or better still if you live in a two-storey home and some building mogul decides to erect a 20 storey block next to you.
Manhattan Island is an exception, it developed into a leading exponent of World Business, Wall Street and so on. Manhattan Island is less than one-fourth the size of Malta, so they had no option but to go up, we do not need this here.
Another example is Hong Kong, yet, once you get out of Kawloon you can breath fresh air. Same with Manhattan Island, Long Island for instant, you are living in a different world.
20% in the first year
30% in the second
50% in the third
on real estate agents valuations and then the government will solve the environment problem and its deficit one too while ordinary people would not have to beggar themselves for years to purchase their homes as prices would stabilise to a more reasonable level and landlords would be more disposed to rent if the rental market were liberalised.
SECONDLY; Mr Walker must resign before the PM asks him too.
To all those who in their comments are putting comments like GONZI PN, FLIMKIEN KOLLOX POSSIBLE, JPO, USE OF HELICOPTERS, GONZI AND THE REFORM in MEPA and Atacking the new MEPA Chairman are not but poor mentality disappointed MLP supportes.
To anyone with a sense of decency this project should have never seen the green light. The reduced height per storey to still accommodate 23 storeys is only limiting the damage in height but what about the infrastructure, the traffic related problems, pollution, etc.
Also what about the people in the area whose life will now be negatively impacted because of the greed of the few and the insensitivity of the ones whose role it should have been to ensure that this humongous monstrosity would not go through but instead agreed to it before even the public discussion was held? Shame on you !
This sends shivers down one's spine when one considers that the will of the majority has been disregarded in such a manner. It appears that money dictates in this country and the richer will get richer as the middle class gradually disappears and its voice is stifled or disregarded.
Toronto and New York have totally different requirements to us, so your comparison is as misguided as this Government's short-sighted and damaging land planning policies.
You are however right on one point, the need for traffic management studies, the most important study that was denied to Sliema's residents by MEPA's rush to appease speculators. How would you defend that decision?
The global credit crunch will put further brakes on sales to overseas buyers - if the fact that areas of the island are being transformed from dusty building sites to overpriced slums wasn't enough.
I think it is clear that the powers that be have been pressured by contractors who fear losing the money that rather rash investors poured into the projects which were still on the drawing board.
From the governments's point of view, refusing the permit would have created havoc because of the money that would have been lost. Its all about the money, stupid!
It seems that we learned the lesson well.
But more importantly you have never been in core areas of mega cities like Toronto and New York City where you have buildings of 100 storeys or more with no more than thirty feet clearance all round and where thousands of workers work in one single tower. Remember twin towers? Thirty-six hundred people perished there, yet if any of you visited Ground Zero, you would have marveled how two giant towers would have fit in the now empty construction site.
New Yorkers didn't argue that since the towers are unfortunately gone, let's not rebuild anything there since the area was overbuilt anyway.
The same applies to the project all of you are moaning about. Your time would be better spent if a study on traffic management was undertaken since it appears that it is the biggest concern.
No permits should be allowed in the ODZs so the answer is to go up, not out. There is little choice in the matter.
No one seems!!
Nice way of doing politics! Well done Gonzi! Keep it up. You're convincing me more and more each day what a pair of strong hands you.ve got!
Could you please tell mepa officials maybe they could give me tomorrow's lottery numbers, keeping in mind they know everything beforehand!
The important thing is that yes, together everything is possible!
More possible than this I find it very hard to beleive!!!!!!!
Cowards.
As for Mepa and Mr Walker. His performance leaves much to be desired. Nobody on earth will ever believe that there was a press release that stated the negative! Pull the other one Sir!
Whoever inserted that press release into a press pack 'by mistake' deserves a Gieh ir-Republika
Silence re JPO and now silence re this scandal
Caruana galizia maybe if u plead in 5 yrs time maybe they pretend to listen
1) MEPA's policy of super-preparedness in printing two mutually exclusive press releases to cover all eventualities should be universally adopted in this space age.
2) The increased demand for printing paper should be met forthwith by planting a new Amazonian forest of quick-growing timber trees.
3) If there is an adverse visual impact between the MEPA-approved plans for the Marsamxett area let us first consider the feasibility of replanning Valletta and its environs before depriving our Philistine developers of the opportunity to make more money.
what Happened to to Promises BY Gonzi PN That Mepa will be more transperant ? Bla Bla Bla Talk but no action , they think the Maltese people are Stupid , Who is going to explian why the desicion was taken before the public consultation? DR Gonzi you are the man in charge of Mepa now lets see the Par idejn sodi tks for the ride..............
What a kick off for the newly appointed chairman ! A very bad experience to my fellows SLIMIZI !
to the people of sliema.........tough in'it ???
MEPA's chairman alleges the existence of different press release anticipating the refusal of the same application but does not produce it and refuses to discuss the matter.
The more things change, the more they remain the same!
Quoting from the Gonzipn book of promises.
Nationalist party is proposing MEPA reform based on the following guidelines:
• Efficiency should be increased in accordance with specified targets
• The increase of transparency and accountability so as to eliminate once and for all any shadow of irregular practices, as remote as they may be.
• Ensuring that inconsistencies are reduced so that no one feels that they have been treated differently from anyone else.
• Most of all, enforcement should be strengthened to eliminate the idea that one can do as he pleases and subsequently get away with it.
MEPA reform on these guidelines is crucial. This is the reason why MEPA reform will fall under the direct responsibility of the Prime Minister.
Very impressive CHANGE Dr Gonzi!
Apparently the approval was let out even before the discussions were started. This may be the new way of the "reformed" MEPA in the hands of Gonzi himself; a not very healthy kick-off for Mr.Walker. As one of the journalists immediatley stated: this may be considered as a scandal. If nothing, this case should be considered as a threat against MEPA's reputation of transparency. The government together with its newly appointed planning authority committee ought to publish a solemn explanation of such a cumbersome and embarassing situation.
Finally I wish to compliment the journalists who were present at the"supposed-to-be" board meeting who ethically enough did not lose patience at which way those who mistakenly published the press release offended their personal and professional integrity.
The main issue here IS NOT whether the project should have been approved or not - It is HOW can MEPA explain and convince that the decision was to be taken AFTER A PUBLIC HEARING BUT THE PRESS RELEASE CONFIRMING THE ACCEPTANCE WAS READY BEFORE IT STARTED.
For all that matters the project (and any other project) can turn out to be important, beneficial, standard upgrading, job creating, whatsoever.... that it is not the point. The point is that if you call a public meeting to help you make your decision AFTER YOU HEAR THE SUBMISSIONS, you cannot be credible that it was not just a smoke-screen and a set-up IF YOU HAVE THE PRESS RELEASE READY BEFOREHAND.
If now you are going to try to convince us that you beleive (and hence so should we) that MEPA had 2 different releases ready and that due to time-constraints at this age of IT they had to be prepared 2 hours before, then I wouldn`t be surprised that you even spend Christmas Eve near the fireplace chimney waiting for Santa Claus !
He said: " That being the case, let's come to a halt, abolish MEPA and stand still. That's an excellent way forward! "
I never knew you were a MEPA expert too.
What a good idea. No need for puppets on strings ready with pre-prepared press releases.
The Local Council would not have to use their time too. Their unanimous vote was a waste of time since not even due consultation with this Goverment Institution took place.
And I am probably, in fact most definitely wasting my time too.
Andrew Camilleri - What about the traffic congestion? What about the residents who have invested in property in Sliema, only to have a very real threat of the devaluation of their properties now that the area is under threat of "more than over-development"?
As for the MEPA hearings, I have attended a meeting where I felt a decision was taken by the board BEFORE the public hearing. At this meeting, board members did not pay attention to the presentation or public discussion; some were walking in and out of the room, the most important board member left the room for a very long time, and another board member was reading and/or sending email rather than following proceedings (I know exactly what she was doing because I was sitting behind her and could see her computer well!) If they'd paid attention to what was going on BEFORE taking their decision, I'm sure they would have had to discuss the application and outcome of the meeting rather than voting without any discussion, which is what happened!
The real experts in IT are Jason Micallef and Alfrd Sant and the rest of the Gang at the Red Glassed House at Hamrun responsabile for drawing up and the printing of the MLP Electoral Programme.
To the developers,hold true to the brief you have been so generously given.Make no mistake we will be watching .
To MEPA. Where's the much heralded transparency? The only thing that was transparent today was the press release announcing approval BEFORE the meeting even took place. What use is a public meeting if decisions are taken by unseen faces in shady offices in private?
To the Prime Minister.You promised to listen to the people and to reform MEPA.By that I took you to mean that you will cleanse MEPA of greasy hands and of corruption perceived or otherwise.When will you do that?
The site could have been subdivided into plots with each plot being built separately. In that case, more residential units would have been developed and the supposed impact on residents would have been greater.
Fort Cambridge is a residential project in an urban area and on a site which had already been previously developed. In any country in the EU, no EIA is required for such a project. In Malta such a project becomes a natioanal issue, at least in the eyes of some.
Maybe, as part of mepa reform, government should hold a referendum with the question; "do you want to stop all development? Yes or No." That way government would get a view which is more representative than the view expressed by the same small group of individuals who object to anything and everything.
there 'walks away' GonziPN's pronouncements about reform, transparency and credibility!
Guess we’ll have to patiently wait for a Cacopardo to do that (who incidently was sacked on Gonzi's watch), in the meantime contain the damage!
But most of all we have peace of mind of REFORMED MEPA.
Thank you administration!!!!!!!
There was very little change in the visual imapct of the project, it still looks awful and can still be seen from Bighi. The question of Social Impact Assessment was brushed over, as was the Air Quality issue, the attitiude of the Chairman was tick the box and move on.
This is a very poor reflection on Mr Walker and makes a mockery of the promises of reform.
This cant be what the Prime Minister meant when he promised reform surely?.
By the way, this must be the first project specifically aimed at people with height issues..if you are thinking of buying you'd better be less than five feet tall since 20 storeys will be squeezed in the height of 16.
SIMPLY INCREDIBLE !!!!
Anyway, now the project can go on ... because the people (of Sliema) have already voted !! In Maltese there is a saying "La krejtha, oqghod ghaliha !!" .... ENJOY !!
This is the second large scale project to be given the go-ahead under the "new" MEPA- projects which before the election were "stopped" so as not to hurt voters... and who knows how many more to come !!!
Poor JPO .... only his project was stopped... the Safi supermarket, the Mistra project and now Fort Cambridge seem to have a much bigger backing than his ..... JPO was PN`s "Haruf tas-sagrificcju" to show that they do mean buisness!
So, the reformed MEPA should reject every project some people disagree with?
That being the case, let's come to a halt, abolish MEPA and stand still. That's an excellent way forward!