A rundown rural area in Mġarr is to be transformed into a leisure park after getting the go-ahead from the planning authority.

The site covers around 56,000 square metres in an area known as Ta’ Darrenzi.

Paths will be cleared, rubble walls restored or rebuilt and timber railings will be installed.

The application, submitted by the Mġarr local council, also includes the construction of a one-storey exhibition and observation centre.

The site is close to Triq Għajn Tuffieha in an Outside Development Zone. It is characterised by garigue and maquis habitats and once formed part of an afforestation project in the early 1950s.

There will be no uprooting or landscaping and the proposed interventions are considered to be minimal.

The authority’s planning directorate noted that the “interventions” on the site were considerably reduced from the original proposal. It said its comments were given their adequate weight and several of the proposals took its input into consideration.