A carnival of promises

In an election year you can be sure that an unfettered street carnival will unmask environmental posturing as politicians jostle for power. Nadur’s famed carnival featured much mockery with a belching power station on wheels.

Impetuously, as if a decade of studies and decisions had not taken place, the Labour leader flies afresh in the face of Mepa

Energy issues apart, the Nationalist Party’s electoral programme deals with parks, water, noise, dust and a new nature agency while promising that the 2012 national environment policy will be implemented. Environment and sport compete with each other under the quality of life section.

An electoral promise involving a car racing track holds out the carrot of training and road safety as a social benefit. Typically, the location of this proposal somewhere outside the development zone has not been disclosed to the public so far other than a vague reference by Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi to somewhere “near the airport”.

At one stage an area near the abandoned White Rocks complex was among the venues being bandied about by stock car racing fans for development of a racetrack.

An earlier bid for a sports complex at the abandoned site had not materialised. That proposal was to include a hotel ‘to support sports tourism with a multi-ownership complex’. The present racetrack developers are also looking for ‘spillover effects into sectors like hospitality’.

Another location floated by afficionados as a possible racetrack site was the old San Niklaw airfield, part of which now survives as a public road southeast of Siġġiewi. The World War II airfield was built as a decoy and kept lit at night to dupe bombers into dumping their loads away from real targets.

The idea of a ‘multi-disciplinary’ racetrack began to take root around the time the Island Karting Club was gaining ground. The club was promised an upgrade of the small karting circuit at Ħal Far by Education Minister Dolores Cristina but waited six years for an allocation in the budget.

Meanwhile other motor clubs were approaching Rural Affairs Minister George Pullicino to source funds to develop their facilities at Ħal Far.

Next we heard of a foreign consortium boasting connections to an international racing circuit abroad. The consortium was reported to be waiting for the nod from the authorities to start seeking €120 million from partners to invest in Malta.

The Malta racing circuit track scheme is a virtual twin of an earlier bid to revamp an ageing Libyan racetrack for exactly the same cost.

The two Maltese racing enthusiasts who started the whole idea had originally set their sites on redeveloping the old Mellaha track in Libya. The plan was to salvage part of the original track and develop 3.9 kilometres for racing with an eye to build hotel accomodation with “a variety of retail space”.

Today what is left of the 13 km-circuit, home to the 1925 Tripoli Grand Prix, runs around Mitiga airport. The strategic site, east of Tripoli, was quickly taken over by opposition forces in the early days of the war in 2011 and the racetrack idea relocated to Malta.

Manufacturers of racing cars based in other countries may be attracted to Malta. Here they can test their cars on an island which shows little respect for enforcing peace in the neighborhood.

The consortium’s vision excludes Formula One engines, yet the noise generated by stock car racing can still be a significant source of noise exposure.

Whining of power boats racing off Sliema once a year is already enough cause for high stress levels. What we don’t need is the screaming wail of racing cars being tested close to surrounding villages.

A separate electoral promise with clear repercussions on the environment comes from the Labour Party. A cruise liner terminal for Gozo is being proposed in the PL manifesto as if it were the first time ever this idea has been through the mill.

The Labour pronouncement rides roughshod over an Environment Protection Directorate decision in 2010 to refuse a permit application for a cruise liner terminal on environmental grounds.

A 2002 Transport Malta assessment of transport infrastructure needs (TINA) mentions only the cruise liner terminal in Valletta but refers separately to unspecified berthing facilities in Mġarr.

The following year a planning application was filed by the Malta Maritime Authority (responsible for attracting cruise liner tourism) for construction of a berth on the seaward side of the main break-water in Mġarr port.

The application envisaged constructing an 80 metre-long platform by 15 metres wide positioned on concrete piles in the sea to be connected to shore by an access bridge to bring cruise liner passengers to shore.

While impact studies were being carried out, a temporary buoy was permitted off Xlendi Bay but berthing and transport of passengers to shore proved problematic in rough weather.

Finally, the nature panel of the Heritage Advisory Committee gave its verdict on a permanent cruise liner berth at Mġarr in 2010:

“It is clear from the appropriate assessment that the development will have major negative impacts, both during construction and operation, on the marine ecology, notably the Posidonia meadows, which are listed as a priority habitat in Directive 92/43/EEC (Habitats Directive) transposed via Legal Notice 311 of 2006 (Flora, Fauna and Natural Habitats Protection Regulations). The proposal therefore cannot be recommended.”

A paper from the International Ocean Institute on ecological considerations of cruise liner facility development at Mġarr added strength to the refusal, noting that seagrass meadows near the surveyed area had a high leaf area index, indicating the richness of this biodiversity resource on which much of the sea’s life depends.

Impetuously, as if a decade of studies and decisions had not taken place, the Labour leader flies afresh in the face of the Malta Environment and Planning Authority. This is the planning authority which Joseph Muscat has promised to go at with a cleaver should the election result in a swing of government.

While in favour of turning a disused desalination plant at Ħondoq ir-Rummien into a sports complex, the Labour Party has so far kept quiet on its position regarding any plans for large-scale residential developments in the locality.

www.cdc.gov/niosh/updates/upd-08-16-10.html

www.academia.edu/1604469/Marine_Ecological_Impact_Considerations_for_Cruise_Liner_Facility_Development_at_Two_Coastal_Sites_in_the_Maltese_Islands