Freeport extension breaks local policies, lobby group insists

An environmental group from Birżebbuġa has accused the planning authority of ignoring local policies when it approved the extension of the Freeport's terminal and is appealing the permit.

The appeal, filed on Thursday, revolves around four arguments which the Birżebbuġa Environmental Action Group hopes will provide enough grounds for the authority's appeals board to revoke the permit.

One point being pushed is that the planning authority board held a number of meetings related to the extension application that were closed to the public, Carmel Cacopardo, on behalf of the group, told a press conference yesterday.

"The board received information related to the permit in meetings where both the applicant and the public were excluded and this goes against the Development Planning Act," he said.

The project had been unanimously approved in Parliament and had the backing of a legal notice but, in February 2009, the board overturned the extension on grounds of overriding public interest. However, the permit was granted last January allowing the Freeport to extend Terminal 1 by 130,000 square metres.

Mr Cacopardo said the board had ignored three local plan policies approved in 1995. One particular policy imposed a 350-metre buffer zone between the Freeport's activities and the beach to protect the "leisure activities", he said.

The planning authority had the discretion to allow the buffer zone to be used as an open space but not to extend the Freeport. "With the extension, the buffer zone will decrease by 150 metres to just 200 metres," he said.

The authority also had the duty to carefully examine the proposed benefits of the development, weighing these against the disadvantages while making sure the applicant identified an alternative site.

"It did not prove that the advantages outweighed the disadvantages. For example, the extension will take up part of the bay used by the sailing club," Mr Cacopardo said.

Finally, the authority requested the Freeport to implement a number of environmental measures to mitigate noise, air and water pollution after it granted the permit when this should have been done before, he added.

At present, bi-monthly meetings are being held between the authority's environment protection directorate, the local council and the action group to discuss light pollution and noise reduction measures.

John Grech, from the environment group, said they were objecting to a separate permit that allowed the Freeport to dredge the bay to enlarge the manoeuvring area for ships.

"The sea in the bay is already dead and contaminated and it will get worse with the dredging," he said.

Birżebbuġa mayor Joe Farrugia insisted the council was not against development but simply wanted the extension to be built on the other side of the Freeport and not inside the bay.