Trenching works for water and electricity services were being carried out at the controversial site in Xaghra on Monday although the Malta Environment and Planning Authority had served the applicant with an enforcement notice three days before, on 10 July.
On Monday 13 July, Mepa enforcement officers gave fresh orders for the work to stop when a breach in the permit was detected during a site visit on 10 July. An enforcement notice was issued and was sanctioned by a senior enforcement officer on the same day.
Meanwhile, an application to sanction “minor additions and differences” on the original permit was granted following application PA 04249/02, which had been filed in 2008. The latter application, PA 04301/08 is awaiting the case officer’s assessment in terms of the Structure Plan and other established policies.
The Ggantija Temple complex could very well lose its UNESCO World Heritage Site status due to this three-storey development located just 20 metres south of the Xaghra Circle and inside the Ggantija Temples buffer zone.
The matter was highlighted by The Malta Independent on Sunday last week, with authorities expressing their shock and disbelief.
People who contacted this newspaper throughout the week pointed out that a good number of carob trees were cut down some two years ago and although a number of individuals filed reports to Mepa no one stopped the developers. Mepa enforcement officers had carried out an on site inspection, only to find people cutting down the trees and simply let them carry on, the reader explained.
Since The Malta Independent on Sunday published the story, a Facebook group calling itself “Protect Ggantija” was set up and by yesterday evening over 750 people had joined it. Posts on the site included photos of the temple complex, videos and comments such as:
“This abuse of Malta’s unique heritage must be addressed. It isn’t simply a national issue; these structures are of global importance and should be respected as such. Building pools and holiday farmhouses in areas of designated archaeological value is shameful”; “Fresh from the Bahrija valley disaster, Mepa strikes again and strikes deeper”;
“Malta and Gozo wake up!!! Developers, with the blessing of our politicians, have already damaged you deeply, and irreversibly!!! Politicians are only interested in votes for their own sake. They are only willing to argue about Europe, and Piano, and a thousand other things to deviate public attention. Who is going to take care of us, and our heritage? It’s time someone, outside of politics and religion, gives energy to us who have lost ALL our hope in politicians, but not politics. This has become much more contagious than Swine Flu!!”; “Wake up to the developers stop this now we must stop all this development ruining Gozo & Malta”.
This is yet another controversial property development that encroaches on the site’s buffer zone. In July and August of 2007, this newspaper has published a similar story of a development permission, which was recommended and subsequently granted for a building adjacent to Xaghra Stone Circle. A private developer was then granted permission to build a two-storey house and swimming pool when in fact Mepa’s development permission application report noted that the back of the site was in an area designated as an archaeological park.
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