The Malta Labour Party does not agree that the land at Xaghra l-Hamra, lying between Ghajn Tuffieha and Mellieha, be turned into a golf course, said environment and heritage spokesman Joe Brincat and MP Roderick Galdes yesterday.

They said the PN government’s proposal confirmed that this administration was not credible when its own politicians keep on insisting about environment management and sustainable development.

In a statement, the Tourism and Environment ministries replied that all decisions being taken were being based on technical studies and reports that are already completed and others that have yet to be finished and evaluated by the Malta Environment and Planning Authority and the Malta Tourism Authority.

In their statement, the Labour MPs said that the proposal for Xaghra l-Hamra was distorted, especially since the report prepared by Mepa in October 2004 focused specifically on alterative sites for golf courses in Malta and Gozo.

In this report, the site in question was not even mentioned and the two MPs said it was astonishing that all of a sudden, with no preparatory study, government came up with this proposal.

Dr Brincat and Mr Galdes said that the Report on Shortlisting of Sites for Potential Golf Course Development referred to a Golf Course Development Policy Paper that identifies the criteria on which alternative sites for placement of golf courses should be based.

Among these criteria is one that states that golf course development should never take place to the detriment of good agricultural land, that the site will allow infrastructural development that will not have a negative impact on the surrounding natural environment and that the golf course should be located as close as possible to the main tourist areas, they said.

The proposal for Xaghra l-Hamra, said the two MPs, does not satisfy any of these main three criteria. They said that apart from the possibility of extending the Marsa course, the report also concluded that two sites in Safi and White Rocks offered great potential for the development of an 18-holer.

Speaking about Gozo, they said that the sites indicated were Ta’ Cenc and an area near Zebbug.

They said the MLP agrees that there is potential for the sustainable development of a small number of courses, but that of Xaghra l-Hamra can never be acceptable in view of various considerations already mentioned.

Development of this site, they said, would mean the total destruction of one of the prime sites of wild, barren countryside. This, they said, was in addition to the substantial loss of various life forms as well as irreparable damage to the environment caused by traffic and machinery during its development.

The site also is home to cart ruts and part of a Roman road, which the MLP said it felt was part of Maltese heritage that should be preserved.

The MLP expressed solidarity with the farmers and residents who would be directly affected by the development, as well as the general public who do not want to see the project come to fruition.

The MLP appealed for government to be more sensitive in caring for the environment and to not allow such speculation of land such as Xaghra l-Hamra. The MLP called for government to review its position in the sake of national interest.

In a statement issued later, the Tourism and the Environment ministries said that the development of the golf course was in capable and responsible hands.

Both ministries said that all decisions being taken are based on technical studies and reports that are already completed and others that have yet to be completed and evaluated by Mepa and the Malta Tourism Authority.

The ministries said the tactic being employed is to allow the authorities to decide rather than taking snap decisions like the opposition party is doing.

They said it is ironic that the opposition leader, when Prime Minister, appointed a technical committee to propose sites for the golf course without giving any consideration to the opinions of the authorities or their technical experts.

In addition, they said, he had gone one step further and decided to impose his own views of where the golf course should be sited without any scientific basis.

The two ministries said that the process so far has been a transparent one and added that it is not even closed yet.

Mepa still has to decide on the information compiled during the public consultation process as part of the environmental impact assessment.

The two ministries said that the process will continue to be decided on the basis of the advice of technical experts, contrasting starkly with the opposition’s tactic of trying political opportunism.

They said that in addition, the site in question was much larger than a golf course would need, which means that more care and consideration could be paid to the most sensitive parts of the site.