Government lacks planning vision - PL

The government’s decision to halt the Ghadira road project confirmed another bad decision on which the Prime Minister and his cabinet had been insisting, Labour spokesman for planning Roderick Galdes said.

Mr Galdes said in a statement there were doubts on the real reasons as to why the project was stopped and these were not linked to environmental reasons, as the minister tried to imply.

After wasting a year in controversy and confrontation with environmental organisations and the Labour Party, the government was now agreeing to the proposal which had been made by the Labour leader to give priority to the Kappara traffic junction, he said. This clearly showed that the government lacked political direction.

Mr Galdes said that it had been clear from the very beginning that the proposals for the new road did not reflect the need of sustainable planning because of the environmental impact on the zone.

But the government persisted in its proposals and, up to a few weeks ago, wanted to go ahead with an environmental impact assessment with all the expenses this entailed.

Mr Galdes said that the technical reports carried out by the ADT were biased in favour of the proposal the government was pushing.

Such confusion showed that the government lacked planning vision and that it was continuing to take controversial decisions against the people’s will.