An environmental NGO has called on Sliema residents concerned about overdevelopment and its effects on their health and quality of life to attend a protest this coming Saturday. 

"Sliema is under siege as never before," NGO Flimkien Għal Ambjent Aħjar said in a statement announcing the protest. "Cowboy developers work with impunity... seemingly immune to enforcement action."

The protest, which will begin at 11am at Dingli Circus this coming Saturday November 5, has the support of Sliema local council, FAA said.  

The NGO, whose coordinator Astrid Vella last week called for the Planning Authority to be disbanded before Malta reached a state of what she called "controlled anarchy", noted that residents in various parts of Sliema were choked by car exhaust, forced to deal with years of constant construction or being kept awake by entertainment spots spreading to residential areas. 

Ms Vella was among the objectors to a proposal to build a six storey extension above an 1800s house on Sliema's Strand. The proposal, which was opposed by the PA's Appeals and Sanitary Board, Sanitary Officer and Cultural Heritage Advisory as well as the project's case officer, was approved by the Planning Commission last week. 

Although Saturday's protest is Sliema-centric, FAA urged people from all across Malta to attend the protest. 

"All Malta is being affected by the problems of over-development, traffic and parking problems, public transport, abusive developers, destruction of heritage, and above all, air and noise pollution," it argued.