A Mepa decision that needs explaining (1)

On January 18, the Malta Environment and Planning Authority granted full development permission for the construction of two blocks of apartments each six storeys high with an underlying basement at Ta’ Fjuri, an area opposite Xemxija characterised by semi-detached houses. By sanctioning this project Mepa not only insensitively ignores the atrocious visual impact but also the difficulties this will impose on the residents in the area.

The structures, with a total of 15 residential units, will be a precedent to turn the quiet and idyllic Ta’ Fjuri into another Xemxija. This contentious decision was taken only a couple of weeks before the same Mepa turned down a similar development just opposite to this one on the other side of the bay. In their explanation for rejecting that project Mepa had realised that the proposed building would be an overdevelopment and argued that “the new plans did not conform to the character of the area, which had detached and semi-detached buildings in terrace form consonant with the site’s topography”.

Is this a grave consistency? Is it confusion? A case of two weights two measures? Whatever, but it surely gives the strong impression that Mepa’s reform is only a cosmetic one. Ta’ Fjuri residents demand an explanation.