A crowdfunding drive to raise money to contest plans to build 12-storey apartment blocks overlooking Mistra Bay has reached its €7,350 target, organisers said on Wednesday.

They announced the crowdfunding success just 24 hours after Times of Malta reported that they needed €2,000 more to hit their target. 

Residents from Xemxija and St Paul’s Bay thanked citizens who had dug into their pockets to contribute, noting that they had managed to raise the sum in just one week and without the involvement of St Paul’s Bay local council.

“We are very proud of this purely grassroots achievement. Unlike a suggestion by an MEP candidate yesterday, civil society is not begging for money but putting its money where its mouth is," said writer and activist Wayne Flask, who helped organise the effort.

Mr Flask was referring to PN candidate Michael Briguglio, who on Tuesday had called on the government to set up a fund to be used by civil society groups and local councils trying to appeal large-scale developments.

Citizen-funded appeals, Mr Flask argued, were a better idea than “begging for government money to oppose developments approved and promoted by government itself.”

He urged residents in other localities threatened by massive developments to follow suit and set up their own grassroots campaigns.

The Xemxija and St Paul’s Bay residents will now use the crowdfunded money to file an appeal against the planning permit given to developer Charles Camilleri on behalf of Gemxija Crown Ltd. The permit, which was renewed last Janaury, allows the applicant to build more than 700 apartments in the area once occupied by the Mistra Village holiday complex.