Put the yacht marina at Marsalforn

I am shocked to learn that Mepa has not thrown out the application for a yacht marina, hundreds of private houses and a hotel in Ħondoq Ir-Rummien - a pristine beach and valley.

I do believe there is a scope for a yacht marina in Gozo, and it's something that would aid the local tourism economy. However, there is certainly no scope for turning an unbuilt area into another seaside resort - a miniature of Marsalforn. A wise government would do its best to place a yacht marina in Marsalforn, which is a languishing seaside resort that would be rehabilitated - and pushed upscale - with a yacht marina.

This might not be easy: an expensive breakwater might have to be built to tame the waves in Marsalforn, but it would be money well-spent as it would reinvigorate the local economy there.

Hence I believe that Mepa should throw out this application and work together with the government to proactively find a suitable alternative place for a yacht marina. First try should be Marsalforn, and last try could be enlarging the port in Mġarr and hence enlarging the yacht marina there.

The development proposed for Ħondoq Ir-Rummien is unjustifiable for two main reasons:

1) Social. The social cost of taking a beach with clean sea away from the local people constitutes an unjustifiable trade-off; local residents are already completely against the theft of this public space - it would amount to social brutality if this bay had to be taken from the populace and given to a developer;

2) There is no need for more five-star hotels in Gozo - they are in fact closing down - and there is certainly no need for more private villas.

More than 30 per cent of Gozo's property is already vacant, and that figure rises to 70 per cent in the low-season in Marsalforn. Sales of housing are stagnant at the moment, so what's the wisdom in usurping more land on property speculation?

In fact this project is not even a touristic development. It's probably property development, pepped up and inflated in value by the inclusion of scarce berthing space. Now Mepa has set two precedents of having hotels being reconstituted into luxury apartments; Mepa has sanctioned this process in the case of L-Imġarr Hotel and Chambray. So all bets are off that the developers can get away with their trickery - getting a special permit in the guise of tourism development, and then in reality doing real estate development and speculation in prime locations. This is the final aim at Ħondoq Ir-Rummien.

All of us Gozitans can see this trickery and, in fact, most Gozitans, like me, who are not involved directly or by business association with the project, have been resounding in seeing this project as unjustifiable. Are you going to do the same? Or are you going to do another gaffe and simply reinforce the impression that many people have, which is that Mepa is in fact a puppet controlled by developers and their cohorts among the political class?

Please don't bury my country.