The Dominican Province this afternoon defended its choice of a site in Ghaxaq to relocate St Albert College from Valletta and said comparisons with the plans for the building of a university at Zonqor were unfair.

The province also said that it remained opened to realistic proposals which may be offered to it by the government, possibly in the south of Malta.

The college in Old Bakery Street, Valletta.The college in Old Bakery Street, Valletta.

The statement was issued after repeated calls for the Church to drop its plans for the building of the college on virgin land.

In the statement, Provincial Fr Frans Micallef explained that St Albert’s has been providing a service for society in Valletta without profit since 1948.

However the current location had created difficulties and the educational authorities themselves had called for its relocation in order to respect the minimum school space requirements laid down by law.

The relocation process started some 15 years ago. The Province immediately decided to move the college to the south of Malta, because of the needs of the region.

It initially wanted to set up the college in Zejtun, using land which the province already had. However, since the site included several fields, the proposal was dropped.

It was then suggested that, through an arrangement with the Church, the college should relocate to a site in Ghaxaq which had been reserved for educational and pastoral services in the Church-State agreement. The Local Plan for the south listed the site as an ‘Area safeguarded for educational facilities’.

The site was chosen after a two-year exercise in which evaluation of some 20 sites was carried out with Mepa. Mepa itself concluded that the Ghaxaq site was the best because it caused the least impact on the environment.

In view of all this, Fr Micallef said, it was unfair to involve St Albert College with the Zonqor Point ODZ controversy. The investment which the Dominicans wanted to make in the new college was a social project for Maltese society, a project which was already provided for in the Local Plan a full 10 years ago. 

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