Seminary rector Fr Jimmy Bonnici (January 31) makes reference to the judicial protest filed on behalf of the Association of Residents Concerned About Seminary School Expansion (Arcasse) and other Tal-Virtù residents against the Malta Environment and Planning Authority regarding the way the Seminary school extension was approved.

To start with, we find it curious that Fr Bonnici has felt the need to give a reply of all sorts to our judicial protest of January 11, rather than Mepa itself. In fact, Mepa’s almost complete silence to date on this whole issue has been deafening.

In our judicial protest there was no “hinting at possible corrupt practices on the part of the Seminary”, as Fr Bonnici bluntly puts it. When the Mepa auditor, in his report, used words such as “a clear case of either sheer incompetence or abuse”, our understanding is that he was referring to Mepa and not the Seminary.

Fr Bonnici also claims that there has been a manipulative use of figures, when The Times erroneously reported that the Seminary expansion would extend its footprint by 430 per cent. In our judicial protest we clearly stated that it is the floor area that is being extended by 430 per cent. It is a case of minor inadvertent misreporting but certainly not manipulation of figures. Whatever the case, the net effect is exactly the same in terms of the additional volume of traffic the project will generate in the residential streets leading to the Seminary, access to which is “notoriously difficult”, as the auditor confirms in his report.

Arcasse has in fact contacted professional traffic consultants on this point and they have expressed their concern, not to say bewilderment, as to how Mepa and Transport Malta could have deemed the development acceptable from a traffic perspective without the commissioning from the Seminary, as the developer, of a scientific traffic impact study of the proposed expansion.

Fr Bonnici recalled a 2004 permit for a minor extension of the Seminary but this was so irrelevant that it was not even mentioned in the DPA. He also refers to the education reform and the Church’s 307-year commitment to education. We certainly have no issue with or arguments to the contrary of this. The residents’ protest is neither against the education reform nor against the further development of Church schools.

The protest centres on the fact that on close examination of the planning process, it is obvious that Mepa inexplicably did not follow many of its own numerous planning policies which the DPA report itself mentions as applicable to the extension of an existing school, such as the adequate and safe access to arterial or distributor roads. In fact, the auditor’s report goes so far as to say that “the application was not assessed at all”, which is a pretty damning indictment that Mepa still has to answer for.

Residents of Tal-Virtù, which Mepa classifies as a Residential Priority Area, and in a large residential area of Rabat, have the right to live in a peaceful and safe environment. They have stood up for what they see as their legitimate rights, which have been ridiculed and usurped. The question at this point is: Who will make up for the deterioration to the quality of life that will inevitably be caused to the residents by due approval for the Seminary expansion?

While we again reiterate that we have nothing against the further development of the Church schools, we do, however, expect that the highest Church and Seminary authorities re-evaluate the situation in the light of our various representations and the Mepa auditor’s report, and take a morally correct decision accordingly.