A great majority of Salina hamlet residents are to file a second request for a warrant of prohibitory injunction this week after a court turned down their first request.

The filing of the legal procedures had brought works in the Salina area to a halt until the court took its decision. The issue was initially raised by residents after they said that plans show that the ramps leading to the village (the access points), which are considered safe, wide, and asphalted with pavements on both sides were to be removed, as in fact is happening now that the court turned down the residents' request.

The first injunction was dropped by the court after a transport authority representative, the chief officer of the roads directorate, Simon Grima, told a court that the ramps need to be removed for the safety of residents.

But residents have interpreted the case officer's report, seen by this newsroom, as meaning that the general conditions stated in the report will in fact be jeopardised.

The report constantly states, on three instances, that the access to the residential hamlet of Salini is being kept as a reserved matter and a separate application would be submitted to assess the impacts of this junction. The report also states that a number of alternatives exist and Transport Malta, together with the Superintendence of the Cultural Heritage and Mepa, are seeking to find the least impacting solution.

The interpretation of the report by residents is that there is no need to remove the ramps, the main entrances to the village. But following the court's decision, where Mr Grima claimed that it is necessary to remove the ramps, goes against the recommendations of the case officer's report, according to residents. The case officer who conducted the report at the time is Johann Buttigieg, Mepa's current chief executive officer.

Residents have been asked to use another access point, a passage situated at the back of Salini which is "unsafe" due to the fact that the passage has no road markings, no lighting, is a single lane, cannot take a heavy load of traffic, has no pavements and simply was coated with a thin layer of cement. Following this week's rainfall, residents said that the layer of cement has already started to wear off.

Mepa CEO explains what access point the report actually referred to

Mepa CEO says report referred to access at the back of Salini and not the ramps, that would be treated as a "reserved matter".

Mr Buttigieg told this newsroom that the report drawn up by himself when he served as a case officer referred to a different access point to the village and not the two access points at the front of the village where the ramps stood.

He said that it was always planned that the passage at the back of the village would be treated as a separate situation.

On this point, residents argued that the passage Mr Buttigieg refers to is non-existent on Mepa's plans of the area. They said that they are not even insured if something happens on the said passage as it is not even recognised by Mepa.

A spokesperson for the ministry said that the temporary access which has been provided for the residents during the works is a single carriageway, which surface was provided as a temporary measure.

Speaking to this newsroom soon after residents filed the first injunction, Ivan Grech Mintoff, who is a resident but also a representative of Alleanza Bidla (Alliance for Change), had said they have only recently been told that, as part of the construction works, the only two entrances left allowing cars to enter Salina would soon be removed to make way for the project.

But this, he argued, would create a massive problem for residents since the only alternative entrance left would be a single track, which is narrow.

"It is not suitable for heavy vehicles or for pedestrian use, or used by any vehicles for a long period of time," he had said.

"We have been asking for information for quite a long time but to no avail. Ten days ago we received plans from the local council which show that the only two main roads into Salina will be removed and the only entrance left is at the back of the village with a single track that has no pavements or asphalt.

It is simply unacceptable for us residents, which is why we have filed a court injunction to halt the removal of these two entrances." The first injunction filed stated that residents' basic human rights are being breached.

"We have been asking the local council and Transport Malta to talk to us and listen to our needs so that we can come to some form of agreement since we have a number of suggestions to share but this did not happen," Mr Grech Mintoff said.

The injunction which the residents intend filing is to protest the fact that the conditions of the original plans are not being adhered to.

Replying to a parliamentary question, the minister responsible for the works, Joe Mizzi, said that the plans always included the fact that the existing ramps would be removed.

Mr Grech Mintoff said that it is a waste of money that the ramps are being removed when other alternatives exist.