An impasse between Marsaxlokk local council plans for a new jogging track and government plans for a boat repair facility on the same spot may be resolved – by building a boat repair facility with a jogging track on top.

The council was granted a permit in 2016, after a 10-year legal battle with the Planning Authority to build a community jogging track on Triq it-Trunċiera, outside development zones, although the current council has shown little interest in pursuing the plans.

Late last year, however, the government Fisheries Department submitted its own application to develop the same site as a boat repair and maintenance facility, including a workshop and offices, ignoring the previous plans.

The government application prompted opposition from residents of the nearby Port Ruman neighbourhood, who are objecting to an industrial development just 20 metres away from the nearest homes.

New plans, open for public consultation until Friday, have since been submitted, including covering over part of the proposed facility and including a public garden and jogging track on the roof.

The facility should be entirely covered, functions limited

The plans include excavations and take advantage of a height disparity in the surrounding roads to keep the roof close to street level.

Marsaxlokk mayor Horace Gauci told the Times of Malta the council had not been consulted and had yet to take an official position on the new plans, but that he saw the addition of a jogging track as a positive change that would hit the proverbial two birds with one stone.

Mr Gauci said the council’s view was that the facility should be entirely covered to minimise inconvenience, and that its function should be limited to boat storage.

He pointed out that while the town needed more storage space for boats to avoid them taking up on-street parking, repairs could be catered for by the nearby hardstanding facility, currently used only for large vessels

Residents, meanwhile, have not been won over by the new plans. In multiple objections submitted to the PA, they reiterated their concerns that the development would bring with it noise pollution and bad odours, and called for the approved jogging track plans to be implemented.

The Superintendence for Cultural Heritage noted that the development was proposed in an archaeologically important area and that an evaluation was ongoing. It suggested conditions to preserve any potential finds.