Next Thursday, Mepa will consider an application to build 46 apartments on a protected open site at Portomaso. The Planning Directorate report, shown on the Mepa website makes intriguing reading. It shows that in 2009, all departments within Mepa were against the project – The Local Planning Unit; The Environmental Protection Department; The Cultural Heritage Advisory Committee; The Natural Heritage Committee; etc. Even Mepa’s Executive Committee opposed the granting of the permit natural open space in the original permits. The common denominator in these objection was that the site was protected natural open space in the original permits, and these permits all included a condition that no further development or extensions would be allowed at Portomaso.

Normally, with applications so heavily opposed the Mepa Directorates and Committees, the Planning Directorate official finalises his report recommending the refusal of the application. Strangely, it is not so with the application. Here, the official found a handy reason to start doing the rounds once more – the applicants had reduced part of the project from a height of three floors to two floors. So what! What change did that do to the suffocation of the open space in front of the scheduled 1761 Knights’ coastal fortification? What change did that do to the original permit condition that no further extensions would be allowed at Portomaso? Why did a reduction of a few apartments now make it acceptable to build in front of the scheduled wall?

Any reasonable and balanced person would say – No change at all. Not so the Planning Directorate. It happily recommended the granting of the permit because a protected plant has now vanished or been destroyed; because the excavation face for the new buildings was moved 1.5 metres away from the scheduled fortification; because only a part of the protected coastal zone is being occupied by buildings; because it does not matter taking 10,000sq.m from a protected green public open space and covering it with buildings; because it does not matter that the public will not be able to access the coast and the sea across this protected open space any more, once it is built.

Ultimately, the decision will be taken by the Mepa Board, which falls under Dr de Marco’s ministry and. Let us see next week whether his bragging about his party’s feats in defence of the environment and in the interest of the people will become a reality, or will become another lost cause for the general public while satisfying a developer’s greed.

Twanny Mifsud

ST JULIAN’S