AD urges Mepa board to reject Sliema development appeal

Alternattiva Demokratika said it is confident that Mepa's appeal board will refute the appeal for the proposed development at Il-Pjazzetta in Sliema on Wednesday.

Sliema AD councillor Michael Briguglio said both the Sliema local council and AD had objected to the proposed development.

Any development at Il-Pjazzetta should protect the scheduled naval clinic façade, should be of proportionate height and should ensure that the square is embellished for pedestrians.

AD chairman Arnold Cassola said AD has been defending residents against the proposed development since the early 1990s.

In a separate statement, Prof. Cassola also expressed the concerns of his party regarding what he termed as excessive interference by the government.

"The government is continuously affirming that it is divesting itself of various powers but at the same time always finds ways and means of creating loopholes whereby the government could still influence enormously the decisions of independent-minded civil servants", Prof. Cassola said.

Stephen Cachia, AD spokesman on democracy and civil rights, said a case in point is the Public Administration Bill being discussed at committee stage in Parliament.

The Bill has its positive points but then also includes article 6(1), which states that: "Where a minister is assigned responsibility for any department of government in terms of article 82 of the Constitution, that minister shall, in line with article 92 of the Constitution, have the general direction and control of all departments, agencies and government entities that may be placed under his responsibility and may give directions directly to the head of department, chief executive officer, board of directors or any other employee falling within his responsibilities, on any matter, except matters where the head of department, chief executive officer, board of directors or other employee is required to act, etc".

AD is against such clause which, if approved, would give near absolute powers to the minister and therefore nullify the positive aspects of such Bill.