The ‘public consultation’ exercise conducted earlier this week in connection with the proposed elderly people’s residential home in an outside development zone (ODZ) area in Santa Luċija allows one to draw some interesting conclusions, as normally happens in head-to-head confrontations between proponents and opponents of a particular project.

Firstly, the intransigence of the applicant in insisting with the same ODZ site in Santa Luċija for his four-storey development, spread over almost 4,500 square metres (or roughly half the size of a full-size football pitch) and rubbing knuckles with the Margaret Mortimer Secondary School, and on which the development of 12 maisonettes was refuted way back in 2007. This despite the fact that at least one alternative location has been proposed by detractors of the proposal, namely Catherine Polidano, who steered the Save Wied Garnaw campaign a few years back.

The alternative location consists of a public area within the heart of Santa Lucija, in close proximity to the parish church and thus does not entail the further uptake of ODZ land. Its public nature, however, contrary to the privately-owned ODZ land earmarked by the project proponent, might probably be detracting from its attractiveness to the same proponent (on behalf of Healthmark Care Services) who is aiming to manage along commercial lines the proposed elderly people’s residence. Additionally, the proposed alternative does not regale elderly residents with country views, as the ODZ location would, even though ironically the same development would have contributed in no mean fashion to obliterating the same views.

Secondly, the unbalanced way in which time was apportioned to the two sides during the debate which was mooted by the Santa Luċija local council as a ‘public consultation’ where residents could vent their views about the project. The lion’s share of the available time was scooped up by the developer’s architect and a health expert who extolled the virtues of the obvious – that of having a residence for elderly people within the Santa Luċija community. Consequently, within this sham of a ‘public consultation’, the time allocated for the actual residents of Santa Luċija was a pittance.

Thirdly, the environmental tokenism. Silvio Parnis has boldly declared that environmental compensation should be meted out in case the project is approved. The loss of land and country views, more so within ODZ areas to be screened by a four-storey building, is irreversible and hence the mind boggles as to what comparable ‘environmental compensation’ Parnis has in mind. If he is contemplating the complete rehabilitation of the Xagħjra-Zonqor coastline, without the intrusion by developers or of pink-concrete pavements, then I am listening, but I guess rubble wall restoration and the odd planting of trees and other landscaping works were more in his line of thinking.

Fourthly, the stance being assumed by local councils within that region of Malta. The Santa Luċija local council steadfastly refused to meet with the residents’ group lobbying against the approval of such a development, despite a whopping 2,400 signatures expressing their objection to the same development. In addition, the Luqa local council has distinguished itself by being the only one to actually oppose the development, despite other local councils, including the Gudja one, participating in previous Save Wied Garnaw campaign events. Similarly, a Labour MP (the late Karl Chircop) and no PN MP, had attended such past events. Change in guard, change in mentality I guess.

Will we have a Mepa li tisma’ (a Mepa that listens) in addition to the much-touted Gvern li jisma’ (a government that listens)?

Fifthly, the cumulative impact. No mention was made at the meeting of the proposed master plan for the Gudja airport area, which lies less than a kilometre away from the proposed elderly people residence location and which will similarly have a massive visual, land uptake and traffic impact, amongst others.

Robert Sarsero correctly asserted that the proposed development would get the green light by the Structure Plan’s successor – the SPED – in view of its ‘community value’. This assertion is interesting on two counts – firstly, since it’s unclear who composes the community Sarsero has in mind (surely not those who wish not to see a further parcelling up of the ODZ gap between Santa Luċija and Luqa) and secondly since it exposes the rationale behind the approval of the SPED, which is effectively a heavily watered-down version of the Structure Plan. Under the latter, which was correctly applied in the previous refusal of the maisonettes application in 2007 on the same site, the current proposal would face a much more uphill struggle to accede to approval. Even tree-huggers concede the need for more residences for elderly people, especially in the context of an ageing population. The bone of contention is the chosen site, of course.

This case is yet another litmus test for Mepa – will we have a Mepa li tisma’ (a Mepa that listens) in addition to the much-touted Gvern li jisma’ (a government that listens)?

Personally, I have misgivings that this will happen, not with the arsenal of top brass putting their weight behind the project, including the applicant’s architect Robert Sarsero (also a member of Mepa’s Appeals Tribunal), Parliamentary Secretary Chris Fearne and MP Silvio Parnis.

One augurs that the decision is not solely taken on grounds that precedents for other ODZ elderly peoples’ homes exist, as shrewdly mentioned by Sarsero, but that a thorough environmental assessment and alternative location selection exercise are carried out.

Doing more with your smart phone

With an estimated global circulation of one billion, smart phones have well and truly become ubiquitous and their ductility is being broadened even further through the development of a growing slew of novel application.

AirProbe and WideNoise are the latest environmentally-themed smart phone apps currently being developed within the EU-funded project Everywhere. The former app, which should soon be in the public domain, works in conjunction with a small battery-operated sensor which connects to the smart phone via Bluetooth.

After absorbing a sample of air, the sensor sends salient information about the degree of air pollution in that location from ozone, black carbon and other pollutants to a central server, which then relays useful information to the user about which areas and peak pollution times to avoid within the same locality.

The app is being latched on to popular phone games as well, in order to promulgate its uptake by the public.

Besides generating useful air pollution alerts to vulnerable cohorts of people such as children, the elderly and asthma sufferers, the smart phone app also generates useful information for scientists and public/urban authorities pursuant to identifying traffic trends and avoiding traffic congestion, for example.

More information about the project can be gleaned from the website below.

www.everyaware.eu;

alan.deidun@gmail.com;

www.alandeidun.eu

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