The Mosta local council should declare its position on the proposed shooting range in Bidnija, Front Ħarsien ODZ insisted yesterday while reiterating its stand against the development.
“Local councils have a duty to declare their position on issues which have a direct impact on our environment and local communities,” the group said in a statement.
The NGO was set up when controversy over the proposed university at Żonqor, in Marsascala, broke out. However, earlier this month it also objected to the development of a shooting range at Busbesija, opposite the Jesuits’ retreat house of Mount St Joseph on the outskirts of Mosta.
The Jesuits have for weeks been insisting that the noise generated by the firearms would have a negative impact on the house, which last year hosted more than 9,000 visitors.
The Jesuits are also arguing that the proposed development is not in line with a draft shooting range policy which says that, due to the “acoustic nuisance”, shooting ranges should not be built near hospitals, schools, residential areas and homes for the retired, among others.
Yesterday, the front said it supported Mosta residents who had set up a new group called Mostin u Ħbieb Kontra x-Shooting Range.
The “enormous” shooting range, covering an area of 14 football pitches, is being proposed 300 metres away from the Mosta Boys’ Secondary School, close to residents, a retreat house and public roads.
The front described the government’s decision to allocate this land to a group of Russian entrepreneurs as an example of how the common good was being sacrificed for private profit-making interests.
Calling on the government to “immediately” reverse its decision to allocate this area to U Group, it called for consultation with the public on the use of the public land.
“It is clear that local communities have more important educational and cultural needs than a shooting range,” it said in a statement, adding that the scale of any such development was unsustainable in a small country like Malta.