Protect Zonqor from current and future development

The saga surrounding the American University of Malta, which was controversially given title over a piece of pristine land in Marsascala’s Zonqor area, took another twist this week, with a newspaper claiming that, after it failed to attract the envisaged number of students this year, AUM has now slashed its projections for next year by half.

According to a report in Times of Malta this week, AUM has, on instructions by its Jordanian owners, reduced its envisaged intake for 2018 to 150 students. AUM opened its doors this year. It had envisaged that it would start off with some 330 students but currently has less than 30.

PN Marsascala councilor Charlot Cassar is now calling on government MPs to file a motion, which would be seconded by the Opposition, to take Zonqor back from AUM. Cassar should be commended for his ongoing efforts to give the ODZ land back to the public. He has been fronting the campaign against development in Zonqor – a campaign once backed by the PN and PD, who have seemingly abandoned the quest. He has also made repeated demands for that other endangered spot in Marsascala – the former Jerma hotel – to be turned into a family park instead of high rise buildings.

Unfortunately the Marsascala Local Council seems to be more keen on concrete structures rather than on open spaces for families. Also unfortunate is the fact that Cassar does not seemingly have the full backing of his own party on these two particular issues and has been left to carry on the fight alone.

The Zonqor project was mired in controversy from day one, when the government told us that there were no other viable sites. Then, in a poor attempt to save face it told us that the project was being split in two, with a scaled down campus in Zonqor (which would still occupy some ODZ land) and another in Cospicua’s Dock 1.

AUM further courted controversy when it started marketing itself as a university before even having a university license.

Works on the Cospicua campus fell behind and had not been completed by September, when the first batch of students was taken in. But the real controversy lay with the number of students that had enrolled – somewhere between 15 and 23 – seeing that journalists had previously been told that AUM expected to start with around a thousand students.

AUM has consistently declined to answer particular questions and has recently fired staff.

The government said last month that the development at Zonqor should not go ahead until the Cospicua campus reaches full complement (1,000 students).

Now, AUM has slashed its projections for next year, further fuelling the belief that the Zonqor campus is not needed.

The government has to step in and do the right thing, and declare that Zonqor is not only safe from this particular development but also from any form of future development as well. Our politicians owe this to our children and their children.

Zonqor should be nothing else but a nature park, and one where the rights and interests of families come before anything else, including those of hunters. The same should naturally apply at the Majjistral Park.

This would be a truly great gift for Christmas and the New Year.