Front Ħarsien ODZ has called on the Environment and Planning Review tribunal to confirm the refusal of a permit for a home for elderly in the Wied Għomor quarry. NGO representatives will be attending the appeal's first sitting tomorrow.

"The project was so unacceptable that it was turned down by all 14 planning board members," it said in a statement.

The PA's board's decision reflected the widespread consensus in civil society against development in one of the few green lungs in the area. Moreover, the project was deemed to be in breach of a number of policies included in the Strategic Plan for the Environment and Development which are aimed at limiting development to the urban area and obliges developers to consider sites within the urban area before making any ODZ proposal.

Front Ħarsien ODZ also called on the government to make it clear it would withhold permission for any development on public land in the area. 

During the PA board meeting in May, it said, PA chairman Vince Cassar confirmed that Land Registry documentation showed that 3,000 square metres of the site were publicly owned.

“The government is therefore duty bound to inform the developers that it is objecting to any development on its own land."

Front Ħarsien ODZ reiterated its position that the only acceptable way to rehabilitate quarries was through their conversion to agriculture land, afforestation projects and public parks.

"Rather than rehabilitating the quarry, the construction of a 133-room old people’s home would simply introduce urban development right in a protected valley. This is simply unacceptable," it said.