A Planning Authority decision to pave the way for a new fireworks factory in Għarb rides roughshod over locals' wishes and leaves them facing "attempted suicide", the town's local council has said. 

"Farmers are being forced to abandon their fields to avoid dangerous risks on their lives," it said, adding that residents, as well as tourists, visiting spots in the historical area of San Dimitri were being put at risk. 

The council's statement came in reaction to a PA decision to dismiss an appeal which sought to suspend the factory's planning permit. 

The factory - which the council has said will be just 300 metres away from an existing fireworks plant - was granted a permit in 2016, despite vociferous criticism from the local council, residents and heritage NGOs. 

Għarb residents remain scarred by the memory of two massive fireworks factory blasts in 2010 and 2012 respectively. The 2010 blast took the lives of six people, with an explosion in a nearby factory two years later killing another four.

Residents overwhelmingly voted against having any further fireworks factories in the area following the first of those two blasts, but despite the opposition plans to build a new fireworks plant have steamrolled ahead over the past years. 

"The choice made by the residents of Għarb when they voted against the fireworks factories in this area was not even considered," the council lamented in its statement on Friday, saying that in failing to schedule the San Dimitri area, the PA had shown a lack of sensibility.

It reiterated its complaints that the PA was playing at double standards, arguing that while the authority had refused to allow ships carrying fireworks to dock in Gozo through Ħondoq, it had no qualms about allowing a permit for a factory "in a village which has already suffered the consequences of unfair and wrong decisions." 

"Għarb local council will not stop here and will resort to all possible measures to prevent this damage and attempted suicide for Gharb’s residents," it added.