Prohibitory Injunction Upheld By Court

Please note that the Warrant of Prohibitory Injunction instituted by Flimkien ghal Ambjent Ahjar (FAA), Din l-Art Helwa, Friends of the Earth and Partit Demokratiku has been provisionally upheld by the Court, and as a result, today’s Planning Authority session where the four-tower Mriehel project was recommended to be approved, was postponed.

The hearing was to go ahead in spite of the fact that it was reported that the Parliamentary House Business Committee was last week informed that “The approval by the Planning Authority of high rise buildings has been blocked by the government pending the approval of a holistic plan” while Minister Edward Zammit Lewis was quoted as saying: “Thus all speculation about Sliema, or Malta, becoming a highrise island was wrong and premature”.

The eNGOs ask why the Mriehel and Townsquare decisions were not put on hold, and maintain that the suspension of permits should be uniform, until a masterplan to encompass all Malta is concluded.

Then Mriehel case is particularly worrying since it was not included as one of the sites for the location of high rises in the FAR public consultation and only added after the public consultation was wound up, which is unacceptable and possibly illegal.

The Planning Authority had announced a second phase public consultation process for Mriehel masterplan, and yet the decision for the towers was to be taken before this second phase opened.  This massive four-tower project would affect a wide area of Mriehel, Attard and Balzan, aggravating the rush-hour gridlock, parking problems and air pollution in the area. It will be seen from almost all the island, and intrude on the supposedly protected view corridor between Valletta and Mdina, Malta’s most iconic landscape.

The eNGOs also contend that an Economic Impact Assessment required for the WHOLE country does not seem to have been submitted, nor have studies of the
cumulative effects of other high rise buildings.

A petition being sent by residents to their MPs attracted over a thousand signatures in the first 24 hours, a reflection of the public’s outrage when shown artists’ impressions of the proposed project.

The eNGOs urge the public to make their voice heard by accessing the petition at http://new.faa.org.mt/contact-your-representative/