Over the past year, countless reports were written over the ongoing battle between people, state agencies and developers regarding over-development and transparency.
ENGOs, environmentalists, politicians as well as the general public have had quite a bone to pick with the government and its entities, holding various protests to challenge projects or agreements.
Of all these, five particular instances stood out.
Central Link
At the start of 2020, 7 January to be exact, Infrastructure Malta (IM) announced that its contractors started work on the Central Link project, which had already been at the heart of controversy.
The project was based on plans included in the 2006 Central Malta Local Plan, which IM optimized to augment long-term efficiency and sustainability with the aim of reducing travel time, improving air quality and creating safer spaces for alternative modes of travel along the arterial road corridor between Mrieħel and Rabat.
Works on this long-awaited upgrade started after the project plans were approved by the Planning Authority and reviewed by the European Commission in 2019, despite countless objections from eNGOs and the public due to the threat it posed to surrounding agricultural land and trees. A court case was opened which brought these works to a temporary halt, yet the work eventually continued causing great distress among farmers while eNGOs called for the PM to rein in these repeated abuses.
In the end, the court appeal to stop the Central Link Project was rejected and IM was let off with a slap on the wrist but this did not stop protesters from fighting against the project, especially after historical findings were uncovered during excavation works over the summer months.
Nonetheless, these findings were dealt with and conserved for public enjoyment soon after, protests were left to fizzle out and the Central Link project was in full swing once again.
According to the Budget for 2021, the project is set to be finished this year.
Magħtab Wasteserv landfill plans
During the month of February, PN MP Edwin Vassallo exposed that Wasteserv had issued a notice wherein the company would take up agricultural land in Magħtab for an extension of the landfill, with absolutely no consultation with residents or with local councils.
The Environment Ministry later confirmed with The Malta Independent that Wasteserv had indeed applied for an extension in the area but noted that WasteServ will be returning a number of closed down landfills back to the public.
Soon after, PN MP Robert Cutajar – who represents the 12th district, where Magħtab and its surrounding localities can be found – launched a petition against this issue which would have seen WasteServ take some 226 tumoli of land, much of it agricultural.
This was followed by a judicial protest being filed before the First Hall of the Civil Court by 25 farmers whose livelihoods depend on these fields. Just 24 hours later, a protest was reported on the Coast Road wherein farmers blocked the entry to the Magħtab landfill.
Environment Minister Aaron Farrugia had expressed his solidarity with the farmers and said he understood their anger but emphasised that he has obligations towards the rest of the country for a comprehensive plan on waste management.
A WasteServ board was appointed in March and in the following month, the ministry announced that the new state of the art waste management facilities planned for Maghtab will be taking up a footprint of 82,000 square metres – 70% less than the previously planned 279,000 square metres.
Farrugia said that the Naxxar Local Council agreed with this new plan, however this resulted in a parliamentary ruling being requested from the Opposition’s side after the Naxxar Local Council said that no such agreement was reached. Rather it had asked to have possession of the formal documents before taking a position in this regard, and the Ministry later pledged that it will offer a site visit and technical plan of the plant for the Local Council.
Miżieb and Aħrax
The Miżieb and Aħrax green areas were in the news from the first quarter of the year up until the last, after reports broke out in April about Prime Minster Robert Abela reviving a proposal to formally hand over these public woodlands to the Federation of Hunters and Trappers (FKNK).
This immediately caused uproar among eNGOs and the general public who said that this would effectively mean that public access to these areas will be closed off for several months. A petition started by the Outdoor Recreation and Camping and hosted by NGO coalition Spazji Miftuħa (which is endorsed by 60 NGOs), saw tens of thousands of signatures in just a few weeks, demanding that access these remains open all throughout the year instead of being sealed off to a lobby for nine out of twelve months.
The coalition had also accused the FKNK for having taken over these areas, even without any legal backing, obstructing people from entering the woodlands and called for Ambejnt Malta to be the entity to manage the areas instead.
At the start of October, Infrastructure Minister Ian Borg, who was involved in the agreement, had said that there would be no monetary compensation for the FKNK for managing Miżieb and Aħrax, adding that the agreement will simply formalise the management of the area by the FKNK which has been there since the 80s. The agreement was set to be signed 3 days later and protests were lined up to counter the signing.
All hell broke loose just a day later, when the government, together with the Environment and Resources Authority (ERA), announced that the management agreement was signed with the FKNK without issuing a press call leading to a judicial protest being filed against Borg, Parliamentary Secretary Chris Agius, and the Lands Authority for authorising it.
The scheduled protests still took place with poeple marching to these areas in a bid to fight against the government’s lack of transparency on this issue. The government countered this by saying that these claims are unfounded as the details of the agreement were published.
Yet, Environment Minister Farrugia had admitted that the government could have given a better explanation of the contents of the agreements.
Dingli roadworks
During the first week of October, NGO Moviment Graffiti and a group of farmers raised red flags about certain roadworks for a new road in Daħla tas-Sienja in Dingli which would take up private farmland in the village. This was planned since 1998 but no action was taken until workers and machinery suddenly popped up at the scene on day.
The NGO said no permits or planning applications were issued for such work to be done, adding that IM was bullying residents and farmers into it. IM said that residents have long been calling for the formation and construction of this schemed road and that no development permits are required for the formation of new roads within development zones.
The NGO alongside Dingli farmers and residents had called for the works to be stopped immediately and also put in an urgent request to the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage and the Executive Council of the PA to issue an Emergency Conservation Order for the late medieval chapel of Santa Duminka and its surroundings in Dingli.
Despite these efforts, the NGO later revealed that these calls were not heeded and that ERA had already approved a permit for IM to uproot and prune the native trees in the area to make way for the schemed road.
Qormi flyover
The end of 2020 saw the rise of yet another mysterious roadwork project wherein IM plans to build a new flyover in the Mrieħel bypass which caused uproar among Ħal-Qormi farmers and residents due to the take up over 20 tumoli of arable land located outside the development zone and would bring the end of one of the last green lungs in Qormi.
From its end, IM clarified that this junction’s safety upgrade in the Mrieħel bypass is still in its initial planning stages and that there was no attempt to implement it by stealth, as was alleged during an activity orgnaised by NGO Moviment Graffiti.
However, the news was criticised by many, including former president Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca, PL MEP Alfred Sant, and the Qormi local council itself which said that it had not been informed about the flyover, while emphasizing that effects could be disastrous.
At the very end of the year, the local council then issued a statement on it’s social media wherein it said that after a meeting it had with IM it will not be supporting the development of this bypass while listing a number of conditions for the government to guarantee before any work can be done.