Application for Church primary school rejected

Ivan Cocker

Feb 5th, 07:43

Another blunder by MEPA.

So these officers are putting in contrast modern design to children education and the pressure you shall be putting into families who have children and prospect ones into this school.
If MEPA are speaking that modernism on the urban landscape are agreviating this project I think MEPA's officers should be looking in some recent projects that are being and have been done in Malta. Being a designer myself I understand what it entitles of contrasting modernism to the past, but hey if MEPA are pulling this article in holding the future on my kids [and others] they should start looking around and see were and when this article should be put on pressure.

This is not an act on our children education.

Lorraine Darmanin

Feb 4th, 18:00

We can appreciate the good that Church Schools have done to the Maltese society over the past years by looking around us and seeing Church Schools' old boys occupying key positions.

One such school is St Augustine College which for a number of years has and continues to deliver its mission in a highly professional manner, educating and building our children with strong values. Building a new primary school is a key important step in view of the Education Reform. Both the students that are already attending the College as well as those that will have the opportunity to do so in the future will benefit.

Government and Opposition both give a lot of importance to Education. Goverment Authorities need to balance the value this brings about against the egoistic needs of a few individuals who are using the environment as an excuse.

Maria Chircop

Feb 4th, 17:34

It' s a disgrace realy, when cosidered how hard Fr Alan and all the St Augustine's team have been working on this project and all the money already spent on plans and permits. It's a disgrace even more when considering all the permits for monstrous blocks that are being built all over malta I guess that it makes a difference on who is applying! This is a project aimed to improve the education system and the church school reform, and by the waywhen considering that the Pieta residents have made up with all the traffic,pollution, St Luke's and all the riff raff theDetox brigs wth it, I do't see how a modern school project can affect the area badly, in fact it will make an improvement..

Mr M Spiteri

Feb 4th, 17:02

How disgraceful could MEPA be to withhold this permit after it has issued permits for an HFO Power station, the controversial law courts addition, government schools some of them in areas marked as ODZ areas and also a number of other developments by powerful contractors. It is clearly a matter of MEPA being either strong with the weak or a rubber stamp in other instances.

I want to put the record straight. My eldest son already attends St Augustine’s Secondary College and as parents we are very satisfied with the school. I also admit that we long to see his younger brother attending the same school and this not without reason.

G Debattista

Feb 4th, 17:02

I wonder why all this bureaucracy??? Why is it so difficult to get a permit from mepa?

Is there a hidden agenda?? With this decision who is going to suffer?? Is the government promoting state schools or independent schools??

With all this reform in education my children are suffering, children who are under 11 to be precise.. there are no longer good junior lyceums and neither church schools.. not even independent primary school … and secondary schools highly populated…

My concern for state schools is that as time goes by, the children (all children) are becoming more disrespectful, full of airs and undisciplined. This behaviour tends tobe copied from peers.. Also, the state schools have very few measures to control this extreme behaviour because of the children’s right and their lack of parents’ support. Appointing a college prefect of discipline is not enough unfortunately..

The issue here is that as a parent, I wish I can send my children to a church school where probably there are less children per year (children not numbers), more discipline and children have to respect authority otherwise they have to pay consequences. Besides, church schools in this case St Augustine’s is run very professionally.

So.. I wonder why it is so difficult to build another primary church schools. After all the state is saving money as it only pay’s teachers salaries and 10% of the overheads. I do not think that there are big issues (design and height of building) - after all it only needs to convince another person at the mepa as it was 4 against 5 .. Probably we all know how this will end. .. there will be some kind of permit but we parents and the church have to be very obliged towards the government …and general elections are still one year away. Only in Malta…. Don’t you think..

jimi Xerri

Feb 4th, 16:44

The more I read this article, the more I realise that a selfish cause has blocked this application.
Parking and traffic problems - Have the residents and Mayor in the area of Gwardamania Hill not realised that the cause of traffic and parking problems has now moved to Mater Dei?
Regarding scheduled property - Have any of the board members ever been to the area and seen for themselves the state in which the villa that housed the then Pricess Elizabeth and her husband is now?
Is it true that a member of the HPU lives close by? Did the MEPA chairmen know about this? Have the other members of the board been influenced by this person? Why is it that the Mayor insisted that he was at the meeting on personal basis? Was the Council informed? What is the possition of the Council?
Scheduling a property that is literally crumbling to the ground due to years of neglect as against an extension to a College which is the hive of Christian values, entrenches it's students the sense of belonging to a community and is the place where their formation in life is given a solid base.

Joe Grech

Feb 3rd, 22:50

Money, money, money....always money, it's a rich man's world.
Businessmen, entrepreneurs from across the political divide - and other entities the Church included, are only bent on making money. To hell with negative impacts on the environment; to hell with all else. Just give us that new flow of money!

C Muscat

Feb 3rd, 21:52

Dhalt fuq is-site tal MEPA fuq dan il-permess u veru ghandna pajjiz li messna nisthu. Biex ma x-xemx ma tkunx fid-dell ta xi zewg postijiet magenb ma naghtux permess; mela nistghu naghtu biss permessi ghal fully detached villas. Il-veru l-uniku asset li ghandna Malta jigifieri l-edukazzjoni ma baqa hadd li japprezza t-taghlim ghal uliedna. Ippruvajt nara raguni wahda valida ghala dan il-permess gie rrifjutat u bdejt nisthi minni nnifsi. Veru tal-misthija li minn 2009 spiccajna m ahniex kapaci naraw kif skola tista tigi rrangata biex uliedna jistghu jigu edukati b'mod professjonali.
Nispera li min hu fl-awtorita jara li dan l-izball jigi rrangat ma jdumx u ma jhallix dawn it-tfal turufnati ma jafux fejn ser ikomplu bl-iskola li bdew; u min ma jafx jaghmel xogholu sew jitghallem.

Randolph Spiteri

Feb 3rd, 10:21

So an application to better the education facilities for our children is rejected .... So please MEPA continue approving permits for multi-story flats and buildings (which will remain empty anyway due to the buliding market slump) .... Yes we need more empty flats and buildings to make a good environment !!

MEPA has become the puppet of big contractors, barunijiet and "hbieb tal hbieb" .

Weak with strong ... strong with the weak .... That's the way to go !

As for sustainability , at least the primary school planned in Pieta would have been surely filled to the brim with children .... Unlike certain multi-story developments whose chances of being sold are seriously in doubt.

And yes, I prefer that the church gets extra income which would ultimately be invested in the education for our children, than see a small number of contractors getting rich at the expenses of the environment !

Please note that the application was for an EXTENSION of the same school and not a new school where previously there was none.

The residents of Pieta have had to put up with St. Luke's Hospital for a large number of years and now St,. Luke's is merely a shadow of its former self. So, the changing role of the hospital must have been a great relief for them. So why object to an extension of a school ? NIMBY syndrome I guess. Not to mention that Pieta residents are "priveleged" as they have reserved parking for residents (unlike my home town St. Venera).

Patrick Pace

Feb 3rd, 09:40

It is simply amazing to hear, NOT FOR THE FIRST TIME, that the Church is behind projects that go totally against sustainability, the Maltese environment, and sheer common sense. If they need to add a Primary School to boost - lets be honest now - its INCOME, why not have the primary hosted in another area in the Maltese islands that is already developed and available for building such a project. Malta is FULL of building areas that need to be put down and redeveloped. This time it will happen for a good cause and not specualation. So St Augustine will have its Primary in Town A and its Secondary in Pieta.
Why not? It`s the guarantee of good education that counts and surely would not be an issue for parents.
We should not repeat the `rape` of Tal-Virtu for the Archbishop`s Seminary. We should not be party to the `panic` by the Church to increase its income through education - at the expense of the environmental well-being of the Maltese Islands.
Our Lord would not be pleased.....but do the Lord`s representatives really care?