It is “absurd” that the number of sites being considered for the proposed American university suddenly shot up from three to 100, government MP Marlene Farrugia has said.
“It’s either that or the authorities are now doing what should have been done in the first place – assiduously scrutinising each and every single location possible,” Dr Farrugia said.
Marlene FarrugiaDr Farrugia, Parliament’s environment committee chairwoman, gave her comments after Monday’s meeting, during which she questioned planning authority CEO Johann Buttigieg over Mepa’s choice of location and what was described at the same meeting as the “superficial, amateur” report his office had drafted as part of the site selection exercise.
Mr Buttigieg said the Prime Minister’s Office’s original brief for locating a site of over 50,000 square metres – half of which had to be in government ownership – in the southeast of Malta had now been changed to a site of over 25,000 square metres in the south of the island. As a result, Mepa was now looking at 100 sites, including forts San Rokku and San Salvatore and a host of government and Joint Office lands.
The original three sites the Government Property Division had identified were Ta’ Barkat, Fort San Leonardo and Żonqor.
Mepa’s own environment protection department was not involved in the site selection exercise because the Office of the Prime Minister had instructed Mr Buttigieg to treat the matter as confidential.
“This raises issues of who was trusted and who was not. When matters are handled properly, there should be no fears about whether the information remains confidential. One should expect total transparency,” Dr Farrugia said.
She insisted that arguments put forward by Mepa in dismissing certain sites, such as Fort Ricasoli - because of the waste oils plant - and Fort San Leonardo - because roads are narrow - were weak.
More in Times of Malta and the e-paper on timesofmalta.com Premium.