I refer to the report on the controversial Lija flats permit (July 14). To call it “controversial” is an understatement. The Lija local council, NGOs Din l-Art Ħelwa and Flimkien Għal Ambjent Aħjar, and all the neighbours (except the owner of the plot) were up in arms.

In next to no time they gathered over a thousand signatures to a petition against the application, which was forwarded to the Parliamentary Secretary for Planning.

I was among the objectors. I happen to have studied town and country planning at post-graduate level in London and later in Milan, and to have lectured on the subject at university for some 30 years.

I was not exactly proud to see two of my former students on the Planning Commission Board.

Either my communication skills had not been all that good or I had been too lenient in giving them pass marks.

At one time the chairperson told me, “it is no use, it is coming in from one ear and out from the other”. I told her that I had been hoping there was something in between.

I have a special interest in the area in question. One side of my family comes from Lija and I had lived there at various times.

The site had belonged to the family and many relatives still live there.

The street at the corner with Daniel Sammut Street is named Andrea Zammit Street after my grandfather who had been District Medical Officer (originally named Dispenser and Police Physician) of the Three Villages, but based in Lija, from 1877 to 1919.

The 2006 Local Plan seems to have been sneaked out without any consultation with the Lija local council or other stakeholders

As he had married the daughter of his predecessor Francesco Seychell, who held the post from 1848 to 1877, the medical services of the Three Villages were looked after by my ancestors for nearly a century.

Town planning is not an exact science. My favourite attempt at a definition is “the promotion and conservation of the quality of life”.

Good neighbourliness also comes into it. The Planning Commission Board would have none of this.

Their Bible was a 2006 Local Plan which seems to have been sneaked out without any consultation with the Lija local council or other stakeholders and which contained a number of relaxations and enabling provisions which allow higher building heights and densities.

It appears to have also included some provisions for gradual change and good neighbourliness but the board would have none of this. Minimum building frontages, balcony spacing, shafts, etc. verge onthe ridiculous.

The board’s “You should have been watching” reminds me of a famous retort by Sir Desmond Heap when the Land Commission Act was being debated in Great Britain and the term “injurious affection” came up.

“Surely everyone knows what injurious affection means,” said the legal boffins.

“But of course, my lords,” said Sir Desmond, “in the crofts where my clients live they do not speak of anything else!”

Daniel Sammut Street is a typical pleasant suburban area with detached villas on one side and two-storey houses on the other. It should not be turned into another Buġibba.

It is already being threatened by extraneous traffic using it as a shortcut from the roundabout or as a parking area from parking restricted streets in Attard and Balzan nearby.

If the proposed garages in the permit are sold to outsiders the situation will deteriorate.

I hope that the appeal which is being made from the board’s shortsighted decision will be successful and that the residents can breathe a sigh of relief.

Another point to keep in mind is that for residents an elephant on the horizon is less awesome than a mouse in their living room.

Andrè Zammit lectured on town planning at the university and practised in development control for over 30 years.

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