The Planning Authority has denied an impression given by a contractor this morning that it was not in favour of recycling and reusing good quality 'franka' stone.

In a news conference this morning, a contractor accused the authority of opting to approve a more polluting and waste generating option in a major construction project of flats and garages in Siggiewi.

But the authority said this evening that on issuing the development planning permit in December 2009, it had approved the Construction Site Management Plan which specifically indicated that 'the applicant is to excavate this material using the latest available state of the art equipment which will cut the stone in large blocks (approx. 1.5m x 1.5m x 1.5m) which will then be transported from site to an authorized place where several products can be manufactured.'

Mepa said it suspended works on site in May 2010, when the contractor willingly decided to ignore a number of the approved plan conditions.

The contractor started to cut and stone-dress the 'franka' stone into much smaller stone blocks using inferior machinery. This not only generated much larger quantities of dust but also transformed the site into an 'unmanaged' quarry.

The authority said that during the subsequent months, the contractor kept insisting with the authority that he did not want to abide by the approved plan but wanted to keep excavating the stone into the smaller slabs.

Primarily to safeguard the amenity of neighbours and minimise the inconvenience caused, the authority kept insisting that the stone needed to be excavated as large blocks.

It said that on April 20, it received a request from the contractor's architect requesting an amendment to the approved Construction Site Management Plan.

The architect indicated that the contractors were to revert to the traditional method of excavating the stone using a pneumatic hammer.

Although not the preferred option, the authority allowed the contractor to make use of the pneumatic hammer as it did in all other construction sites.

The authority also denied it had received any official invitation to be at the news conference.

See also:

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110517/local/mepa-opts-for-more-polluting-option-in-siggiewi-development-contractor.365821

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