The wrong approach

In reply to an attack on my piece regarding development in a Gozo valley (‘The Marga Valley saga’, The Sunday Times of Malta, April 28) here are the facts:

With reference to the environment page on Marga Valley (April 14), rather than being a biased piece written “without checking the facts” as claimed by Karkanja Ltd director Euchar Vella, my article was compiled only after directly viewing plans, documents and reports relative to the case.

In my reference to the ancient surroundings I referred not to the houses and villas Mr Vella sees but the wider landscape setting in which the development proposal lies.

While Mr Vella tries to imply that the article was written blindly, or even influenced by a single source, the opposite is true. He goes as far as claiming the writer’s “lack of familiarity” with the case when in truth the research included two visits to the site.

Applications by the same company in Gozo were checked on Mepa’s mapserver where all basic information relevant to the case is available for public scrutiny. The fact that the initial footprint of the company’s development application at Marga valley lies well outside the building boundary can be clearly discerned. Even after reducing the impact on the valley the proposed development is still not acceptable. When looking at a previous refusal for another building application (PA/07697/06) which threatened to spill into the valley it is pertinent to study Mepa’s justification in turning down it down which reads:

“The proposal would constitute a potential risk to the sustainability of the valley thus running counter to Structure Plan Policy RCO 28 which provides for the protection of important water catchment areas.”

The Qala ODZ boundary should be realigned with the last old building at the edge of town before the bridge which crosses the valley lead-ing out of the village toward Hondoq ir-Rummien.

For the Mepa board or the appeals board to permit Karkanja Ltd to erect a building on ‘piles’ acting as stilts in the watercourse would be on a scale with the pre-Mepa eyesore at Nadur which juts out gallerija style over the cliff edge. This approach to development is a return to the planning disasters of over 20 years ago.