“Far reaching negative effects of the Ta’Cenc Development” by Lesley G. Kreupl (TMIS, 19 August) is a typical contribution of a breed of a few foreigners who, after settling in our midst, soon start to lecture us with platitudes on what should or should not be done.

The nonsense content of Ms Kreupl’s last paragraph is the real giveaway. Like some pre-war self appointed messiah, she says that the time has now come for the government to expropriate such “sensitive” properties in Gozo like Ta’ Cenc about which she makes misinformed statements that are remarkable only for their hilarity and distortion. Of course the Ta’ Cenc project is quite unique and cannot be compared to any other project to date.

I am not quite sure where Ms Kreupl comes from but clearly she still cannot understand that in a democracy one does not expropriate private property, except perhaps in time of war (when one may requisition property) but certainly not because certain militant NGOs or government agencies may not see eye to eye with some landowners at the negotiating table. She then goes even further and accuses the owners of Ta’ Cenc – of wanting “to milk the island some more” and “isn’t it time to give something back to the island?”

Well, that is precisely what the owners of Ta’ Cenc have consistently been trying to do for many wasted years. After they were first encouraged (by fairly senior politicians of all hues) to build the much needed first golf course on Gozo in the same area near the existing villas at vast personal expense, they were howled down by a number of NGOs for various (not all honourable) reasons. Sensing trouble and loss of votes the politicians tacitly withdrew support. That project was abandoned. The owners then decided to submit a proposal to turn 60 per cent of the Ta’ Cenc area into a Heritage Park (larger than the size of Valletta) which would protect and enhance the habitat and the local archaeology of the area – at their expense – alongside another project to develop 1.7 per cent of the entire area with the addition of a new well appointed hotel and a few unobtrusive upmarket villas in close proximity to the existing villas – an area that has been committed to development for the past 40 years! Which landowner in Malta has ever contemplated developing a protected Heritage Park on a vast stretch of important countryside of great scenic beauty and turning it over to the public to roam at large? Surely this is hardly an act of further milking the island! Nor is it so harmful to enhance the tourism product of Gozo with upmarket accommodation that can compete with similar much larger developments in neighbouring countries and islands and also provide much needed additional employment opportunities for Gozitans.

It is understandable that most people should object to the kind of excessive, unbridled and scandalous development that is taking place in Malta. We all wish to ensure that Gozo is not similarly plundered. But this does not mean that all development in Gozo should therefore be vetoed out of hand regardless of its merits. For this reason, sustainable and ecology friendly projects like that being proposed for the Ta’ Cenc area in Gozo (now seriously revised and more modest) should be given a fairer hearing and receive a more informed and balanced appraisal. If necessary, there should be more hard negotiating and firmer conditions laid down to ensure there can be no abuse or dubious trickery involved at a later stage.

But it has to be said that very rarely, if ever, have proposals for free and open heritage parks to protect and conserve large tracts of countryside been put on the table by any landowner. This is too good an opportunity to be missed.

Eric Gerada - Azzopardi

Naxxar