The area where the only surviving Roman catacombs in Gozo are located should be expropriated and development in the immediate surroundings banned, according to Gozitan NGO Wirt Għawdex is urging.

The paleochristian hypogea, known as Għar Għerduf, in Kerċem, recently came under threat by new development.

The Planning Authority board said on Saturday it would be discussing whether to withdraw a permit for a two-storey house on Triq Ta’ Xuxa, in front of the catacombs.

It said that when the application was being processed, the Planning Directorate considered the zone as a Class B archaeology site. However, records showed that the site and the surrounding 100 metres had been protected as a Class A category until October of 2000.

The same discrepancy was visible on the PA’s electronic system used by the Planning Directorate when the application was evaluated.

“In light of this discrepancy there are grounds to withdraw the permit,” the PA said.

Wirt Għawdex is now calling on the PA not to stop with the reconsideration of this recently-granted development.

Wirt Għawdex is calling for development to be banned in an area in Kerċem, for which three separate applications have already been filed.

Contacted yesterday, executive secretary Giovanni Zammit insisted that the PA should protect the whole site.

Mr Zammit said the NGO was in constant contact with the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage and had sent a letter to the Prime Minister and the new Gozo and culture ministries on the matter.

Over the past years, there have been applications for three separate sites within the area: one in 1996, which was refused, one in 2006, which had been recommended for refusal, and the latest one, which was approved.

Neither the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage nor the former Environment Protection Directorate had objected to the 2015 development.

Wirt Għawdex believes the catacombs site should be expropriated, while the surrounding area is turned into a conservation area, with no development allowed to take place there.

Mr Zammit said the catacombs could sustain damage if heavy machinery was drivenin a field situated right over the vaults themselves.

News of the development last week was met by protests and Wirt Għawdex told this newspaper it would be increasing pressure on the authorities in a bid to save the catacombs.

In a letter to this newspaper, Mario Buhagiar, from the University’s Department of History of Art, said the site in Kerċem was a vitally important archaeological zone and any disturbance, unless for research purposes, “will be an unpardonable crime against Malta’s much vaunted cultural heritage”.

Prof. Buhagiar added that the catacombs at Għar Għerduf were of “crucial importance” to the country’s late Roman and early Christian history and merited careful preservation.