Balzan local council said today it was requesting the re-zoning of an area in St. Francis Str. corner with St. Gabriel Str. which was originally a villa area and was mistakenly re-zoned by MEPA into a terraced house area.

"The mistake by MEPA officials was in misinterpreting colours from watercoloured Temporary Provision Schemes (TPS) charts and as a result changing this area from a villa area to terraced house area." The council said this was a mistake that the surrounding residents would pay for dearly as clearly stated by the Ombudsman (in a report dated 27th of August 2008) as well as MEPA’s auditor (in a report dated 11th of February 2008).

The council explained that in the wedge shaped area where normally two small villas would have been built ,the latest development application was for 15 apartments.

"The proposed 5 storey development would dwarf existing 2 storey villas and one storey bungalows on either side, cutting off light, invading privacy whilst not integrating at all within the surrounding existing quite villa area. The 6 meter buffer zone within this area would be ignored and totally built up," the council said.

The application for construction of 15 apartments will be discussed by the MEPA board this Thursday .

The council said local residents have since 2005 contested this development with 28 families signing a petition and same residents filing a judicial protest in 2008, asking MEPA to correct the mistake in zoning.