Timmy Gambin is reported to have stated that members of the Environment and Resources Authority were present at the Planning Authority’s hearing when the Sliema Townsquare high-rise project was approved and so could have spoken up because, according to established procedures, they had every right to comment on any issues that may have been deemed to have any form of bearing on the discussions.

I am amazed he does not realise how ridiculously incongruous his statement is when he himself was in possession of a memo from Victor Axiak, the ERA’s chairman, no less, expressing serious reservations about the project.

Axiak has stated he was unable to attend the hearing on medical advice but the memo he sent to Gambin is reported to have been intended to be read out at the hearing. It described the environmental impact assessment as a “sham”. Nevertheless, Gambin saw fit not to read out the memo at the hearing and he has adamantly refused to say why or to make any comment on the matter.

Are we to understand that Gambin considered the contents of a memo from the ERA’s chairman as not constituting an issue that, in Gambin’s own words, “may have been deemed to have any form of bearing on the discussions”?

This is a position that is simply not tenable.