The racing track is not just a case of more money down the drain, ADPD-The Green Party said Saturday. The decision to select a site for a car-racing track at Ħal-Far, on the outskirts of Birżebbuġa, betrays a gross lack of sensitivity towards the welfare of the residential communities in the vicinity. 

"Birżebbuġa cannot take more noise pollution. It is already bombarded from all directions," Meliisa Bagley, ADPD deputy chairperson, said.

The proposal of a car racing track at Ħal Far will add to the noise pollution to which Birżebbuġa is already subjected to from aeroplanes which descend towards the airport over Birżebbuġa, as well as the continuous noise resulting from the operations of the Freeport Terminal. Birżebbuġa cannot take more! The Government proposal shows a lack of sensitivity and signifies that, at the end of the day, Government does not care about the welfare of the residents of Birżebbuġa.

Part of the site has already been in use on weekends: the resulting acoustic pollution is being picked up as far away as Kirkop and Safi, let alone in Birżebbuga itself. At times, this goes on well into the night, even as late as 2am, concluded Bagley.

Works are currently in hand on the drag-racing track, commonly referred to as the quarter-mile track. These works are the only ones permitted to date by the Planning Authority in view of the fact that the planning application for the racing track proper has been withdrawn.

Works in hand have been possible as a result of a direct order issued by Infrastructure Malta earlier this year. This has a value of around €7 million. It was issued instead of a public call for tenders. Carmel Cacopardo, Deputy Chairperson of ADPD-The Green Party stated that this matter has been referred to the Auditor General for an investigation in view of the fact that it is part of an abusive systemic exercise by Infrastructure Malta to undermine the public procurement rulebook which must be observed in the wider public sector.  

Even though works on the racing track itself, spread over 82,900 square metres, have not yet commenced, the original estimate of its costs have already sky-rocketed from the original €20 million to a staggering €78.3 million. This has resulted from documents which were made public recently. An explanation is required as to why it is possible to have so large a variation with the revised estimate being approximately 4 times the original one. This points to one clear conclusion: the amateurism in the administration of public funds.

Meanwhile the planning application for the racing track is apparently withdrawn most probably as a result of the lack of conclusion of the environmental studies on acoustic and light pollution required by the environmental authority. It is only through the measures which could be identified in these studies that the impacts arising out of the operation of the racing track can be potentially addressed. These impacts could have been avoided if the government showed a minimum level of sensitivity for quality of life of the residential communities in the vicinity, concluded Cacopardo.