Environmental campaign group Front Ħarsien ODZ has called on the Environment and Planning Review Tribunal to confirm a previous decision by Mepa in 2011 which refused a fireworks factory in the area known as Tal-Għajn in Mellieħa, in the vicinity of Popeye Village.

The NGO also expressed solidarity with farmers in the area who have expressed health and safety concerns due to the fact that they work on land in the vicinity of the proposed fireworks factory. It demanded effective legislation to protect farmers from the risks posed by such developments.

The application dates back to 2009, only a year after Mepa issued an enforcement order against a number of illegal rooms and “the use of fireworks without a permit” on the same site. The application seeks to “sanction the manufacture of fireworks within agricultural premises”.

Mepa’s Environment Protection Directorate (EPD) and Planning Directorate had both strongly objected to the application, insisting that the use of the site for the manufacture of fireworks was questionable in view of its being in conflict with existing and approved agricultural uses. The Planning Directorate also warned the fireworks factory would pose a risk to neighbouring farmers.  The EPD had also warned that the development would impinge on the rocky karst land’s habitat and garigue’s species and on two watercourses originating from Wied tal-Ħanzira and Wied ir-Randa respectively.