Mġarr local council has appealed a Mepa permit to build a large villa on rural land, metres away from Ta’ Ħaġrat temples.
Times of Malta is informed the appeal will be heard in a few weeks’ time as heritage and environment lobby groups are closing ranks to oppose the permit branded as “shameful” by Din l-Art Ħelwa.
After refusing plans for development on this land in 2008, due to its proximity to the UNESCO World Heritage Site, last month Mepa issued a permit for a two-storey villa and adjacent gardens on an 867-square-metre plot, which is mostly Outside Development Zone.
Its own case officer had recommended refusing the application this time round as well.
Such permits only serve to create a precedent to more development within heritage buffer zones
The Superintendence for Cultural Heritage and the Environment Protection Directorate previously opposed the permit, due to the area’s “considerable archaeological sensitivity and the immediate vicinity of Ta’ Ħaġrat temples”, but both changed their positions after the developers altered their plans.
Times of Malta is informed that in 2007, when Mepa granted a similar development permit on land adjacent to the Ta’ Ħaġrat temples, Heritage Malta expropriated the land to safeguard the buffer zone.
However, a spokesman said “expropriation of land is an extreme last resort” this time.
Heritage Malta said in this case, a field terrace already acts as a physical and visual buffer from the monument.
“The emphasis of our consultation on this application was to insist on the adoption of acceptable design standards and building heights.”
Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar expressed “alarm” at putting a World Heritage Site under threat of development.
“Such permits only serve to create a precedent to more development within heritage buffer zones,” the rural heritage organisation said yesterday. “How can those institutions that are bound by law to safeguard our historical heritage use two weights and two measures, when in 2007 not only was a development next to Ta’ Ħaġrat objected to, but the land was expropriated at taxpayers’ expense?”
Ta’ Ħaġrat temples were built thousands of years ago and are among the most ancient religious sites in the world.