Furious Mtarfa residents yesterday complained that a private dead-end road, in between three houses belonging to the same extended family compound, a garage and a small garden housing an old carob tree, would be turned into a public road.

Mepa officers accompanied by police yesterday requested access to the road. Police officers ordered the couple, both in their 60s, to grant access and were warned not to complain as otherwise police had orders to arrest them.

On 19 June, Mepa senior legal counsel Tony Degaetano, on behalf of the director of planning, requested permit to enter the Scerri’s property on particular dates as a detailed topographic survey needed to be carried out. The letter warned that if the couple failed to inform the director of planning as to which dates were convenient for them before 8 July, the authority would request police assistance to forcibly enter the land.

Meanwhile, a Mepa spokesperson said that the road in question had been public in the early 1960s and so the road could be re-opened without the need for land expropriation. He explained that a survey of the site needs to be carried out before the PC application to re-open the road was filed. The application process would then allow for complaints and objections; however residents cannot object to a survey as Article 50 of Chapter 356 of the Laws of Malta concerned right of entry in private land for the purpose of surveys.

The couple had not sent a positive reply to the director of planning but had their lawyer appeal from the decision taken by Mepa in a letter dated 2 July.

It said that the client believed the right granted by article 50 was not an absolute one since Mepa’s request did not satisfy the request of the said section of the law. It stated that the request may have been made to satisfy third party interests adding that there was absolutely no need for Mepa to carry out the survey from Mr and Mrs Scerri’s land as the same survey could be carried out from alternative sites.

It said that the client’s right to peaceful enjoyment of the property was being disturbed and no reason in the said letter of 19 June was given to justify such disturbance.

Mr and Mrs Scerri and their children, residents at the private street off Mtarfa Road claimed that turning the private road into a public one would accommodate owners of a private land at the very end of the road which would be built into apartments.

The couple have been living in the area for several years and encouraged their children to sell property they had and build up houses close to that of their parents.

The street is thus closed off by a gate signaling ‘private property’. The same gate, garage close to the old carob tree and a rubble wall at the end of the road were built in compliance with Mepa permits, they said.

The carob tree would have to be destroyed and the garage pulled down if the road will be made public since at present it is only a narrow concrete path where their nephews and nieces play, Mr and Mrs Scerri said.

Furthermore, they pointed out that many Mtarfa streets were structured as cul-de-sacs (dead end roads), a unique concept to Mtarfa. Thus it would be difficult for the government to turn this road into a public one since land at the end of the road is some one storey below ground level.

While the family is not complaining to the building of new property close to their houses, its only objection is to give up the road since another road parallel to the private road provides direct access to the site. However Mr and Mrs Scerri believe that having access from both roads, developers would be able to fit in more apartments.

They said that there have been many attempts for the private road to be turned into a private one along the years however on every occasion, Mepa’s request to access the road were always masked and in excuse of some water drainage survey and similar land surveys. The Scerris were convinced that such attempts at turning their road into a public one did not have to do with public convenience but to satisfy greedy mouths.

With reference to road access to link the private road to Mtarfa Road, Nature Trust Malta also called for Mepa to reconsider its proposal to avoid unnecessary destruction of the “very old carob tree” which is legally protected and said that the road proposed would be too close to the cliffs over looking Mdina. It also explained that the road would be a minor one and alternative access existed from Mtarfa Road.