Sliema residents’ representatives yesterday protested that large projects in the town were being pushed through with a “nominal public consultation process”.
The NGOs said unpublished design brief modifications for the Midi development proposed adding several high-rise tower blocks exploiting the lack of a clear Malta Environment and Planning Authority policy on this issue.
The Sliema Residents Association, the Qui-Si-Sana and Tigné Residents Association and Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar (FAA) said they considered it high time that Mepa enforced the developers’ duties to inform the public and “enter into a real public consultation process which would produce constructive debate on mega projects like Tigné North and Town Square which will add hundreds more residential units to our already overcrowded town”.
The meeting focused on lack of public consultation, overdevelopment, air pollution, construction site regulations and lack of parking space.
FAA coordinator Astrid Vella said the authorities should encourage prospective applicants to identify, enter into discussion, and provide information to the public.
“The responsibility of holding a public meeting to inform the residents about the developments shouldn’t fall on NGOs.
“Although Town Square developers did enter into discussion with NGOs, they didn’t do the same with the public,” she added. The Town Square public consultation process closed on June 1, while the Midi public consultation process closes today. The Midi development brief was unavailable, Ms Vella said.
“The information available on the Mepa site, which is extremely hard to find and so large that it is impossible to download, was not publicised enough,” Ms Vella said.
She said in spite of the regulations on environmental management of construction sites dealing with development nuisances, noise and dust pollution prevailed.
She also referred to the 62 parking spaces that had been removed to make way for a bus lane on the Tigné Sea Front as part of an agreement reached between Transport Malta and Arriva to divert buses away from the recently pedestrianised Bisazza Street.
“Like all other aspects of the Bisazza street projects, no public consultation was carried out with the residents about the reduction of parking lots along Qui-Si-Sana,” she insisted.
In the meantime, the Chamber of Small and Medium Enterprises – GRTU yesterday held a meeting with Resources Minister George Pullicino to discuss “a practical solution” for the Sliema promenade parking problem.
The union said the decision to remove the parking slots had been taken without consultation with business community representatives.
The GRTU appealed to the Prime Minister to intervene so that the “matter can be resolved without much further argument as the alternative plan presented by the GRTU mitigates favourably the negative impact on commerce in Bisazza Street and the surrounding area”.