“My intention as prime minister — I am making this a crystal-clear declaration — I want to have another golf course in Malta. I want to have another golf course in Gozo,” Dr Gonzi said.
“The experts will tell us where we can best put them, but I want to have these two golf courses.
“There might be a price that we might have to pay, some kind of disadvantage somewhere, but the big advantages overcome the disadvantages.
“This will never be perfect, therefore we will not be pleasing everybody. Somewhere, somebody will criticise us, but it can’t be helped.
“We will listen to the criticism, we will give it its value, but finally the decision will be taken,” he said.
In this context, Dr Gonzi added that Gozo had a potential for development as the question of Fort Chambray had been tackled.
Indeed, when parliament resumes from the summer recess, the motion authorising the transfer of Fort Chambray from Roberto Memmo to its new Gozitan owners will be presented, he said.
Regarding the need for golf courses, Labour’s spokesman for the environment and national heritage Roderick Galdes told The Malta Independent on Sunday:
“The Labour Party has declared its support to such projects for many years. It seems that the Nationalist Party is agreeing with us too now.
“Among other things, it had proposed a golf course at Ta’ Cenc in Gozo, as well as the conversion of Maghtab from a landfill to a golf course in addition to the one in Marsa.
“However, the Labour Party has always opposed the proposed golf course at Verdala as well as in Zebbug.
“We have always insisted as well that such projects should be carried out after extensive studies to reduce the impact on the environment of the locations where they are sited.
“The aim of our policies in this respect is to safeguard the interests of tourism while protecting the environment, thus we proposed sensible sites for the location of golf courses.”
For his part, AD chairman Harry Vassallo told this newspaper that the Prime Minister’s statement was an attempt to pave the way for the announcement, expected in September, of MEPA’s decision regarding the controversial permit application for a golf course in the valley underneath the Verdala Hotel.
For years now the government has claimed that it would not interfere in what is, or should be, an autonomous decision taken by MEPA. According to Dr Vassallo, the Prime Minister’s statement yesterday belies earlier claims that his government had no intention of interfering in the decision making process.
He added that Dr Gonzi’s government was free to carry on making assertions of this nature “because it does not have an environmental policy, or any clear ideas for the environment at all.”
The Green Party’s stand against golf courses still stood, Dr Vassallo said.
(See full report of Dr Gonzi’s interview on pages 1 and 48)
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