Attard residents who live close to Wied Incita have upped the pressure on the authorities to take action at a quarry which, they say, is noisy, dusty, dangerous and in breach of the law.

“Heavy machinery is being used from early morning – before dawn, until late in the evenings,” one resident said. Residents also complained about the significantly high mounds of rubble caused by the quarrying work and the amount of dust, especially noticeable on windy or dry weather.

Attard local council filed a court case against Rainbow Mix Ltd, Sand & Gravel Ltd, Mepa and the Commissioner for Lands over the issue early in 2015. The council has also filed a number of judicial protests on the issue, dating back to 2009.

The council claims that the defendants, through their actions, have caused large amounts of environmental damage, which is also detrimental to resident’s health.

They allege that the companies have illegally built a brick factory, as well as various other ancillary structures such as a bridge that crosses Wied Incita. They argue that the factory was built very close to a residential area resulting in unacceptable noise and traffic, generated by trucks.

In fact, a planning application to sanction the brick plant was filed at some stage and, according to the Mepa website, the application was passed to a case officer to assess the proposal in terms of the structure plan and other policies.

According to the complaints from residents, the Council also said in their case submissions that the landfill stockpiles are higher than is permitted by their licence, and that excavation work is taking place outside the confines of the quarry.

As far as the health of the residents is concerned, such work has “considerably increased the amount of dust”.

In its response, the Lands Commission said that through a contract filed on 14 January 1967, a 99-year ground rent agreement was granted in respect of 55 acres for a quarry to be excavated. A condition of the contract is that within 12 months from the cessation of excavation work, the land was to be returned to agricultural land.

“Soon after the quarry began operations, rock-cutting on contiguous land belonging to the government occurred through expropriation, a brick factory had been previously built on land belonging to the government and government land was used for ancillary apparatus”.

The Commissioner for Lands said that he had filed a protest as well as a court case stating that the ground rent agreement was broken since the land was not restored 12 months after rock cutting ended. The Court, however, said that work at the quarry had not finished and as such that obligation was not yet in play.

Rainbow Mix Ltd and Sand & Gravel Ltd argued that it is not true that they caused excessive environmental damage in Wied Incita, that they had not constructed an illegal building and that the brick factory does not inconvenience residents in the area.

They argued that Sand & Gravel Ltd, together with a third party, are the proprietors (proprjetarji) of the valley itself, and thus any activity occurring there is on private land. They also challenged, among other things, the contentions that landfill stockpile levels are higher than allowed under their licence and that they are excavating outside the confines of the quarry.

The case is still ongoing.