I refer to the letter entitled Privacy will not be prejudiced from Mr Alfred Pulè (TMIS 26 June).

Mr Pulè, the only one who speaks in favour of the application, tries to discredit my son Robin Zammit by saying that Robin does not even live in Daniel Sammut Street. He is quite right. I owned the original plot on the corner of Giovanni Barbara Street and Daniel Sammut Street and built on half of it, with an entrance on Giovanni Barbara Street, where Robin now lives, I sold the corner strip on Daniel Sammut Street to Mr Pulè, on which I built a villa and an annex for him. Robin’s pool and garden are on the other side of Mr Pulè’s pool and garden.

The whole neighbourhood, including the local council and the NGOs, are strongly against the present application on the other side of Daniel Sammut Street, which is zoned for two-storey residential development and is fully developed apart from the controversial plot which would be twice as high as the existing building and overlook and overshadow the surrounding developments, apart from creating traffic and parking problems for the area.

I have spent half my working life teaching and practicing town planning and development control and any change in zoning conditions had to respect good neighbourliness and be gradual and easily distinguishable. Such change also had to promote and preserve the quality of life. These principles are absent in the present case – in fact they are more “honoured in the breach than the observance”.

I am surprised that Mr Pulè, who I know as a respected businessman, should present himself as the sacrificial lamb in this case. Could it be that, perhaps, he sold the plot in question to the applicant? If this is the case, I do not have to remind him that people who live in glass houses should never throw stones.

André Zammit

Sliema