The Mepa board yesterday reluctantly approved an application by Malta Air Transport Services (MATS) for a fourth radar station which, as all admitted, will ruin the view of the landscape at Fawwara.

At present, Malta has two radar stations covering the airport. One, within the airport perimeter, handles landings and take-offs while the other, on Dingli cliffs handles traffic passing through Malta’s Flight Information Region which ranges from Tunisia to Crete (and which is a valuable source of income to the government).

But Eurocontrol rules say that each radar station must be doubled in case of an emergency or a blackout. MATS is at present building a radar station at Ħal Far to handle incoming and outgoing flights.

The radar station approved by Mepa yesterday will act as a double for the Dingli radar station.

But there are numerous issues with regard to the site that was chosen.

This will be at Ġebel Ciantar, in Fawwara, in a locality known as Il-Fulija. It is next to a quarry and the area is very degraded and in a state of disrepair.

Three sites were considered for the siting of this radar – one on agricultural land, one on garigue and one in private hands. The three foreign companies interested in the tender analysed the three sites and all plumped for the site that was chosen, although not all chose the exact site that was finally chosen.

One issue that determined the choice regarded the height of the tower to hold the radar ball. If the site chosen was in any different location, the tower would have to be 40 metres high. Apart from the great height, this would also necessitate the mechanical part of the tower to be around half way up the tower as it would lose in efficiency down at ground floor, given the 40 metres height.

As it is, the tower proposed for Fawwara would be 20 metres high (originally it was going to be 25 metres high but it was adjusted downwards. As against the one in Dingli, it would not have a stone structure 15 metres at ground level but would be all in metal. And it will be painted in the same light blue colour that was used for the Mater Dei chimney and services on top so that it blends with the sky.

But the site that was chosen is at the very end of the sort of promontory of the high ground. This means, explained Siggiewi mayor Karol Aquilina, that the radar tower will overshadow id-Dar tal-Providenza. One end of the high ground ends in the Is-Salib tal-Gholja and the other end will end with the radar tower.

Dr Aquilina chided the Directorate for the photomontages it showed the board showed how it would look from Verdala and Girgenti. That was not the right place to see how the tower would look, Dr Aquilina said: the best way to judge its height was from Dar tal-Providenza.

Mepa chairman Austin Walker chimned in: he sympathises with the local council but one has to see what were the real alternatives.

Carmel Vassallo (former Brigadier and head of the Armed Forces, now MATS CEO) argued there was no alternative to doubling the radar stations. This was a €2.1 million project without which MIA can be stopped from operations.

One alternative site that was considered was one at In-Nadur but this would have been based on a tower built by the Knights with many archaeological remains lying around. Furthermore, if the radar was to be sited here, no development would have to be carried out at Mtarfa and Zebbug as any development would interfere with the line of sight.

The area that was chosen was a degraded area which needs to be cleaned up and replenished. The alternatives were good agricultural land and garigue.

In the internal consultations that had taken place on this application, the Environment Protection Unit argued the project will have a big visual impact.

Roderick Galdes (MP) said he understood the importance of this project but urged a site visit by the board to evaluate the impact but Mepa CEO Ian Stafrace revealed to the board he and a couple of colleagues had gone on site and saw that the site is a degraded one. However, this new radar will provide an essential service to Malta. There are a number of other essential services which also have a major visual impact.

Other MATS officers insisted that without this second tier of radar, the safety of aircraft could be at risk and the airport’s operation could be impacted. This would in turn impact on the revenue that Malta derives from its FIR and from tourism as well.

Other alternative sites were proposed but all were ruled out. Bingemma would require a higher tower. Ta’ Zuta would be below the minimum distance from the Dingli station and would create a shadow to the latter. Roderick Galdes suggested dismantling the Dingli radar station which is now nearing the end of its operational life and putting this new radar there but he was reminded that the Eurocontrol rules demand a doubling of radar stations and without this, the airport could be made to close.

It is true, the MATS officers admitted, there is now a new technology being developed, based on satellite as against radar, but this is not yet accepted in Europe and recent experience showed it could be easily hacked.

Mr Galdes continued to insist on a site visit but no one seemed to support his proposal. The application was then approved unanimously.