The reassuring voice-over on the Paceville Integrated Development Plan tells us to “Look at the Bigger Picture”. But as usual, the devil is in the detail (more of that later).

Pretty much everyone agrees that the place is falling apart under the weight of a zillion pole-dancing clubs, traffic chaos, deafening music at all hours of day and night and the almost daily popping up of yet another Hugo Chetcuti establishment. The resident verandas converted into open-air pissoirs and vomitariums weren’t pretty. Neither were the brawls.

So a makeover was definitely in order. And if there was a holistic plan – like the ones we’ve been pleading for in other areas – so much the better.

What’s not to like then? Mainly the effective destruction of a well-loved bay and surrounding beaches in a land-reclamation-by-stealth exercise. And this doesn’t refer to Paceville but to all the bay and beaches inland of a projected land reclamation in front of Portomaso.

How did a plan to clean up Paceville translate into a (proposed) promontory jutting out across the mouth of Spinola Bay? How does a plan which is supposed to improve public access to the waterfront indicate that there will be a multitude of 15-storey buildings and/or yet another high-rise tower at the water’s edge? How did we get from Plan Promote Paceville to Plan Cement the Sea?

It takes a very careful reading of the Paceville Plan to see through the buzzwords bandied around. Towards the beginning of the document there’s the mention of “placemaking”, which is one of those terms which can mean everything or nothing at all. Then we start getting these references to “development parcels”, which somehow conjure up images of small, contained dumplings of land.

How did we get from Plan Promote Paceville to Plan Cement the Sea?

On page 14 we start getting an inkling of what’s in the wings. We read about a “new Portomaso development, on the newly created peninsula…”. It is only after wading through 220 pages of the 234-page document that we finally get to the “r” word. “Portomaso comprises an area of potential land reclamation”, we are told.

Closer scrutiny of the artful 3D diagrams scattered throughout the Paceville plan will show blocks of 15-storey buildings on this newly created peninsula.

Yet another high-rise tower is added to the mix to provide a ‘lighthouse’ approach to the overall skyline. The new lighthouse tower is never depicted in 3D form – possibly because it would belie the waffle about iconic skylines tapering to a central point.

The land reclamation proposal effectively spells the death knell for the inner area of St Julian’s Bay and all the rocky beaches within the new Portomaso Promontory. Those of us who remember the horrific months during the excavation of the present Portomaso lagoon will recall how the sea turned an awful milky white. Divers will remember how starfish and other life forms disappeared. Bathers will remember how they were edged out of Shingles beach as the wall went up – forcing them onto a rocky strip in the shade of a wall so ugly that not even graffiti artists could be bothered to deface it.

The area was granted to the developers for a song, and permits were issued regu­larly with the customary servility that successive administrations show. The mention of enforcement or pollution miti­gation measures or guarantees will elicit a hollow laugh from anyone who has followed this saga. What enforcement? What mitigation? Who can compensate the public for the perpetual loss of accessibi­lity and enjoyment of the site?

And now that the development has taken over much of what was publicly accessible, it is proposed that they take over the sea, pouring inert waste onto the seabed, destroying sea life and turning the whole area into a barren creek.

And what for? More “luxury” accommodation on an already crowded area?

So that high-end tourists can enjoy sea front views while we commoners drown in their filth?

When will it ever be enough?

Is this another ‘done deal’ on the lines of the Żonqor giveaway? If so, we will be burying the last shred of political decency along with our once beautiful beaches.

drcbonello@gmail.com

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