On June 28 Ħarisen Patrimonju Mosti submitted the largest environmental petition in Malta’s history to the highest authorities in order to save Wied il-Għasel from a massive development on its protected ridge. No action has yet been taken to honour the will of over 24,400 people.
The last legal step in Nature Trust’s and Ħarisen Patrimonju Mosti’s joint appeal still has to be heard by the court and notwithstanding this work on the site is still being permitted.
Works are now commencing before 6am, with police reports by disturbed residents being ignored, despite laws stating that construction works that produce noise are not allowed to start before 7am.
Plenty of evidence was presented to Mepa and other relevant authorities illustrating several breaches of permit conditions, but no concrete action has been taken to curb such abuses.
According to the permit, the site perimeter screening should be resilient and able to resist up to Force 8 winds, and kept in optimum condition through-out as to satisfy its purpose and function. The persistent bad state of this hoarding shows that it was never constructed to withstand anything close to force 8 winds.
The law and permit conditions clearly stipulate that development notices should be affixed in a specific area and be visible and legible throughout the construction phase. The current location of the notices is in contravention of established regulations and all the work done in the past months has therefore been carried out in breach of this. This is not the first time that the notices were found to be missing or in the wrong place.
With reference to Plan 35 of PA 0556/05 of October, 2009, taken from Mepa’s website, works were to be kept at at 0.75 metre boundary from a protected rubble wall which should have remained completely untouched. This too was ignored.
The developers also damaged the protected rubble wall which has been defaced with markings in red paint. Another part of this rubble wall was also destroyed, (closer to the bridge). This should have been retained and untouched. Ħarisen Patrimonju Mosti would like to urge the authorities concerned to intervene and end this abuse once and for all. Over 24,400 people are still waiting for something to be done.