NGOs said that the quality of life at Cottonera has been undermined further with the approval by the Planning Authority of plans for the Sally Port promenade.
Infrastructure Malta’s Birgu Sally Port road application was approved by the Planning Authority in spite of over 320 objections - some of which were still not up on the PA’s site after the hearing decision hearing, the NGOs said in a statement.
Sally Port promenade is a dead-end road running along Birgu’s Kalkara flank. In its present dilapidated state it is not functioning as a road, providing a stretch for walking, jogging and cycling, a sliver of foreshore where the children of Cottonera learn to swim, a fishing zone, area where children play and the community socializes in the evening. It is a key public space and one of the few remaining in Birgu accessible to the public without commercialisation. The area definitely needs to be repaired and embellished but not reduced to a tarmacked road and cement strip over virgin foreshore.
During the PA hearing, eNGOs Tuna Artna Lura, Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar, Moviment Graffitti and Birgu residents presented a long list of policies violated by this application: SPED, DC2015, Local Plans, and Malta Road Safety Strategy - as well as the Slow Streets initiative issued by Infrastructure Malta itself. Furthermore, the proposed plans go against the mission of the 'Kottonera Strategy' issued by the Planning Authority, the Ministry for Transport, Infrastructure and Capital Projects and the Ministry for Justice, Culture and Local Government, calling for “the improvement of the quality of urban living in Cottonera" "to provide a number of publicly accessible open spaces which will greatly increase the quality of life of the people frequenting the area." "These spaces are to be embellished in line with the requirements of the locality …as well as to provide for informal sports and activities within them."
However, none of these were discussed.
This session made a mockery of every planning policy, all of which specify measures to improve urban facilities and foster a healthy lifestyle, to safeguard our country’s beauty and communities’ wellbeing, the NGOs said.
The plans show no bicycle lanes, dangerous pavements, benches with no backrests, no ladders to the sea, no play area, no space for sports and recreation. Where small trees like Judas trees would provide shade without marring the fortifications, the proposal provides no shade, very little greenery or decent landscaping. Just an uninspired sea of concrete and a beautiful foreshore buried under concrete, destroying the habitat of the local, protected marina flora and fauna. Cars are prioritised over people, as the seashore becomes a road with parking spaces, a race track not a slow traffic zone, against the PA’s directives, common sense and the community’s wellbeing
No amount of politicians’ speeches on sustainability and improving transport will hide the fact that neither the Local Council nor government politicians are caring for residents’ wellbeing. In an area where residents have famously been deprived of one public foreshore and are being pushed out of their towns by gentrification, this plan will replace a key public space with a road, paving the way for kiosks and further commercialisation of this virgin seashore, belittling this important historical area and ignoring the physical and mental wellbeing of the community.
At a time when Malta is facing an obesity crisis, when children have declared that their biggest problem is lack of recreational space, when Covid has increased the need for safe open-air recreation, the organisations declare that it is high time for the Prime Minister to step in and stop this madness.
Image Caption: The eNGOs’ notes added to IM’s artist’s impression of the area.