Moviment Graffitti has urged the Malta Environment and Planning Authority and its Development Control Committee to reject the application for an industrial waste sorting plant to be built in Wied Garnaw.

“Sanctioning the development of an inorganic waste separation plant violates the Structure Plan and illustrates Mepa’s inability to regulate development in

Outside Development Zones,” said Graffitti.

In a statement, the lobby group said: “Furthermore it is unacceptable that developers keep appealing and forcing Mepa into reconsidering developments of green areas that have been classified as being outside development zones.”

The residents of the area, together with the Save Wied Garnaw Action Group and the thousands of people who signed the petitions for the safeguarding of the valley, should be spared another period of uncertainty over the fate of the valley, said Graffitti.

It continued: “Moviment Graffitti believes that green areas such as Wied Garnaw and other open spaces in the countryside should be fully protected by Mepa. The decision taken recently by government to safeguard Xaghra l-Hamra from the development of a golf course was a good example of sustainability and social justice for the common good.

“A good alternative site for the development of a waste sorting plant could be one of the many factories that are vacant in industrial zones. The utilisation of such sites would be a move towards sustainability,” Moviment Graffitti concluded.