The Opposition yesterday filed a motion to expropriate a plot of land metres away from a Unesco heritage site at Ta’ Ħagrat, Mġarr, in a bid to halt a recently approved development.

Addressing a news conference at the temples’ entrance, PN deputy leader Mario de Marco said the best solution would be to compensate the owners of the plot and in return ensure that the buffer zone around these temples would not be developed.

The move comes in the wake of a petition launched earlier this month by environment NGO Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar and criticism from Labour deputy leader for party affairs Toni Abela, writing in l-orizzont.

The controversy concerns a decision by the Mepa appeals board last month, which confirmed a permit issued in September for the building of a villa on a plot of land close these temples, against objections raised from the FAA and the Mġarr local council.

The appeals board had justified its decision saying that the development application was in line with planning policies.

Dr de Marco said even Dr Abela suggested expropriation which, he added, had been taken some years ago in a similar case concerning another development application near the site.

In 2009, the government property division had paid a sum believed to be around €140,000 to expropriate two plots of land fewer than 10 metres away from the megalithic temples dating to 3,600BC.

Back then the Malta Environment and Planning Authority had issued a permit for two buildings, each on two storeys.

Following the appeal board’s Ta’ Ħaġrat decision – which the Labour deputy leader branded as “murder” of part of Malta’s cultural and historical heritage ­– the FAA has already gathered some 1,500 signatures calling on the government to halt this development.