Attard council claims quarries causing damage

The Attard local council has filed two judicial protests against the authorities complaining that two construction companies have caused environmental damage to a valley in the locality.

The council claimed that Sand and Gravel Ltd and Rainbow Mix Concrete Ltd were also causing serious inconvenience to residents because the rock cutting in the quarries they operated in Wied Inċita were casting a lot of dust into the atmosphere.

The two protests were filed against the Commissioner of Lands and the Malta Environment Planning Authority.

A meeting was held between the council and Mepa last October about a number of problems connected to the quarries and, on November 12, Mepa sent a letter to the two companies asking them to reduce the height of their stockpiles of building debris, the council said.

The authority asked them to take all the necessary steps to solve the dust problem, to stop excavating outside the quarries and to submit rehabilitation plans.

The council claimed that Sand and Gravel Ltd had been given a 99-year lease by the government in 1967 and had broken the lease agreement by digging into public land and using it to park heavy vehicles. It added that even though the company had built a bridge across the valley and Mepa had slapped it with an enforcement notice, no action was taken to remove the bridge.

The council said it held the commissioner responsible and asked him to stop the encroachment onto public land and ensure that the company did not breach any of the lease conditions.