The Marsascala Local Council will be appealing the Mepa decision to award an outline development permit to Wasterserv for the re-construction of the waste recycling plant at Sant’Antnin.

According to law, it has 30 days from the issue of the permit to lodge a complaint.

Dr Toni Abela, the legal consultant of the Committee Against The Recycling Plant As Proposed, announced this during a press conference at the Zabbar Local Council offices yesterday.

If the case is rejected, it will be taken to the Court of Appeal. The committee is ready to take the case abroad if needed, but all local remedies have to be exhausted first, Dr Abela said.

Dr Abela also announced that three local councils were going to submit a judicial protest in court on the matter.

He revealed that Mepa’s Audit director had written to the Front and asked them to testify on what they had said at the public hearing. Dr Abela replied that since they were going to appeal, they would say what they have to say in front of the Planning Appeals Board.

Dr Abela condemned the manner in which the public hearing was conducted at Mepa last Thursday, saying that in this case, the Authority acted as if it was the applicant’s lawyer. “There was no level playing field,” he insisted.

Asked by this newspaper if he had faith in Mepa given the manner in which the hearing was conducted, he said that he knew the people at Mepa and the Planning Appeals Board had integrity, but they were being pressured by politicians.

As an example of this pressure he mentioned the Prime Minister’s declaration in a mass meeting on the eve of Independence Day that “the plant will be built at Marsascala as proposed”.

Marsascala mayor Charlot Mifsud has announced that a huge protest will be taking place in the locality soon. Moreover, a “fund for justice” is being launched to finance the impending legal battle. He appealed to residents in Marsascala, Zabbar, Zejtun, Fgura, Tarxien, Gudja and Ghaxaq to contribute to this fund.

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