Tomorrow the Environment and Planning Review Tribunal will advise the country whether they will allow the development of a residence within the legally-established Buffer Zone of a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Flimkien ghal Ambjent Ahjar has expressed concern that if the Local Council’s appeal against this development is not upheld, it will create a precedent allowing further developments not only close to the temples of Skorba and Hagrat, but within other buffer zones of prehistoric sites all over Malta and Gozo.

FAA said the fact that this development is within a buffer zone that MEPA had created after extensive consultations and studies and that the said Buffer Zone was part of the Management Plan for this monument which was designated as a World Heritage Site, being one of the earliest forms of prehistoric temples excavated in Malta.

The buffer zones protecting these world cultural heritage sites are deemed to be so important that various polices in both the Structure and Local Plans give great weight to what is allowed within the buffer zone and close to the temples. So important is the view from and to the temples that even the information centers related to the temples should be unobtrusive and non-invasive.  The Mgarr Ta Hagrat and Skorba Buffer Zone allows no development other than the redevelopment of existing dwellings.