Updated 6.50pm - Added PN statement

An underground parking lot by the Mosta church may never see the light of day as the town's local council yesterday approved a motion against the project, Labour Party councillors announced this afternoon.

Addressing a press conference at the car park by the Mosta Dome, Labour Party councillor Alex Muscat said that current mayor Ivan Bartolo was insisting on going against the position taken by the council led by the previous mayor Edwin Vassallo.

Mr Muscat insisted that while for years the council had called on the government to address the parking issue at the busy locality, for reasons the new mayor has yet to divulge, the PN councillors were not backing the project.

In a subsequent statement, the Nationalist Party said that it was against the project because it risked damaging the Mosta church. 

"Having a car park that touches the church - with all the risks to the church this could entail - is not the right one," the party said in a statement. 

The PN said that it was all for having an underground car park provided it did not touch the church, and that it had identified two other sites in Mosta which could be used. 

READ: Mosta councillors agree on need for underground car park

Projects Malta announced a request for proposals for the construction of the underground carpark near the Mosta dome last September. The project would create some 350 new parking spaces and would also convert the car park near the Dome into an open space. In December, the agency said that it had received two bids to design, build and operate an eventual car park.

A photo montage provided when the project was first announced.

The councillors, Mr Muscat went on, were not aware of what had prompted the sudden u-turn, adding that Mr Bartolo had originally backed the idea and only changed his position in recent weeks.

Mr Muscat said that the Labour councillors were not in a position to back the project yet, as Projects Malta was still evaluating the two proposals it had received. Projects Malta has also hinted that it needs the council to back project before moving ahead.

However, it was also premature to dismiss the initiative completely at this stage, Mr Muscat said,  as he urged PN councillors to stop treating an issue that was crucial to many families in Mosta as a political football. 

Mosta councillors had previously agreed to back the project. Photo: Jonathan Borg

In its rebuttal to Mr Muscat, the PN noted that the PL councillor had failed to mention that "he and his local council buddies" had boycotted a meeting during which a vote was to be taken on the car park issue.