The Malta Environment and Planning Authority said that the installation of bumping cars through planning application number 1010/13 is being done on a patch of disturbed land, adding that the structure will be strictly placed on the location  as indicated for a temporary period.

When contacted, Mepa told this portal that the stipulated period covers the four months of summer, and the structure will be dismantled and removed from the site at the expense of the applicant as soon as the four-month period expires.  

Marine Aquatics Ltd director Salvu Ellul, the company responsible for the 16-million-euro aquarium project, yesterday said that an amusement park, in the process of being built near the aquarium in Qawra, could pose a threat to an old costal entrenchment wall, which lies behind the planned park.

The Old coastal entrenchment wall consists of flat-faced artillery platforms which were linked together by curtain walls. This forms part of the defences built by the Knights and was supposed to stretch all around the island but was never finished.

Mr Ellul questioned how the company was expected to preserve and restore the wall, as sipulated in the contractual agreement, but at the same time Mepa issued a permit for an amusement park in the said area, defeating the purpose of the contract.

He said that while the aquarium-related contract incuded a number of conditions to adhere to, Mepa went ahead issuing a permit for a park to be built in the area where Mepa requested that the land should be left untouched.

Mepa said that nor the garigue land or the entrenchment wall will be affected as a result.

“Over the weekend, the area in question was cleaned up from litter and rupestral plant vegetation trimmed, the vegetation of which did not include the Silicornia species,” Mepa said.

According to Mepa, the entire land surface covered by the structure is to be immediately reinstated to its pristine condition and to Mepa’s satisfaction in accordance with a method statement approved in advance by the Environment Protection   Directorate.

Additionally this permit also specifies that this development permission does not signify that the permitted structure may be considered as a recedent to establish a permanent development on site or for the placing of similar structures in any other location.

The permit also states that there  will be  no  concrete  platforms  or any  other  permanent  foundations  and no excavations will be allowed on site and that the site must be cleared and reinstated to its original state by the first week of October of this year.