NGOs to make formal request for Qala permit to be withdrawn

Seven environmental NGOs have expresses regret at the reaction of the chairman of Mepa following a report by the Authority's audit-officer over the permit granted for development on Qala Ridge.

Ramblers' Association, Flimkien ghal Ambjent Ahjar, Friends of the Earth, Nature Trust, Din l-Art Helwa, GAIA, and Malta Organic Agriculture Movement said they were surprised and dismayed at the negative reaction to the report and said they considered it as a "poor attempt to divert attention from the real issue at stake" and which the chairman should have addressed.

"The report exposed serious shortcomings in the approval of the Xerri Planning Application, similar to other abusive cases that have been bulldozed through while Mepa reform drags on," the NGOs said.

They called on the chairman as well as the Prime Minister, under whose responsibility the Authority falls, to explain why the planners who formulated the Gozo and Comino Local Plan in 2006 zoned the area as a Category 1 Rural Settlement when this area did not fit the criteria at all.

They recalled that in their request to the audit-officer for an investigation into the development permit, they had questioned how the designation of "rural settlement" has been accorded to just two structures, both belonging to the same owner, and both in ODZ, when far larger clusters have been denied that designation and the development potential that came with it

The NGOs said they would be filing a formal request to the Prime Minister and the MEPA Chairman to investigate the anomaly that will be created if the development permit is not withdrawn, in view of the highly damaging precedent that would be set for the rest of the scenic ridge.

They also asked the chairman to commission an independent surveyor to draw up a photo montage of final plans from the sensitive side of the site - the cliff side. He would thus determine which of the two montages was fact-based - the one submitted by the applicant or the one submitted by the objectors.

See also

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20091112/local/mepa-in-sharp-rebuke-of-its-audit-officer