Councillors’ reasons for referendum

Għarb councillors decided to hold a referendum over whether to build a new fireworks factory on the outskirts of the village because four of them may have a conflict of interest.

The mayor and the deputy mayor form part of the committee making the request to build a factory, while councillor Lisa Marie Brooke was involved in drawing up a related contract and Emanuel Muscat’s family owns fields in the area. Carmen Vella is the only councillor with no connection to the application.

The application for a new factory was submitted to the Malta Environment and Planning Authority last March. It was signed by the president and secretary of the feast committee and backed by the council’s deputy mayor, who has a licence (A) to manufacture fireworks.

Mayor David Apap is understood to be torn over the application because, on one hand, his family owns fields in the area, and, on the other, he is vice-president of the committee behind the application for the factory.

A committee member said: “In Gozo, if you’re the type to volunteer, you tend to be involved in everything.”

However, the same member told The Sunday Times that the timing of the referendum may be “unfair” and “prejudicial” because it could be held at an emotive time.

He said villagers were not in the mood to discuss the option of a new factory after six people died in a fireworks factory explosion on the outskirts of the village last Sunday.

It is still unclear when the referendum will be held, with the mayor saying this depends on how quickly the electoral commission reverts to the council on the issue.

“They might get back to us in two months or this week,” Mr Apap said, adding that the referendum would then be set in motion. It is also unclear whether Mepa would take the referendum as binding or whether a problem would arise if it decided to issue a permit anyway.

Recently, Mepa has been turning down the majority of applications for fireworks factories.

Those who back the new factory said this would be the safest option for the village, since it was always better for fireworks enthusiasts to work in a factory rather than in a makeshift room or a garage, as they would probably do otherwise.

They added that Għarb did not have its own fireworks factory, since the ones that existed were all privately owned and run as businesses, not by volunteers from the village.

They hoped that the wording of the referendum question would be fair and point out that this was not an issue about whether to produce more fireworks in Għarb but whether to have a factory for volunteers of the village.