The Jesuit community at the Mount St Joseph retreat house on the outskirts of Mosta is objecting to plans to open a shooting range at a disused former military installation in the vicinity, saying this would "undermine" the serene atmosphere of the place.

The Jesuits are concerned that the noise generated by the firearms would negatively affect some 10,000 people who frequent this retreat house every year.

These concerns were raised at a news conference organised at the retreat in Mosta which was addressed by the director of the Jesuit Community Fr Patrick Magro and Mr Stephen Scerri, director of the retreat house. 

Fr Magro said he wrote to the Prime Minister asking him to ditch this proposal. He added that sound barriers would help but would not filter all the noise emanating from the shooting range.

Fr Magro argued that no compromise could be found between the sound of firearms and silence.

The project is being proposed by a consortium named U-Group, and the development would span on an area of some 300 metres. In 2013, the Land Department issued an expression of interest for the use of the derelict military installation at Tal-Busbesija, Mosta.

Mr Scerri said that an interested party had spoke to them on plans for a horse riding school which they had welcomed. The Jesuit community had made a submission as part of the call highlighting its views. However, the government recently announced plans to develop a shooting range.

In a detailed presentation they pointed out that such development was against a draft shooting range policy proposal issued by the planning authority in 2006, and contrary to UK standards. 

Mr Scerri noted that the proposed development was much larger than the footprint of the military base.

A shooting enthusiast, James Green, who was among those present, passed remarks and interrupted the speakers accusing them of trying to "deceive" the public. Fr Magro appealed for calm, telling him to raise his points at the end of the address.

Mr Green, who said that he had no connection with this development, later said that the shooting point was 300 metres away from  the house. "You are comparing chalk and cheese" he said, while pointing that comparisons made with UK standards did not make sense for Malta. 

 

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.