Paola square project to have more trees than before
Parliamentary Secretary for Local Government Silvio Parnis told The Malta Independent that the Paola Square project, which has been at the heart of controversy for the past couple of days, will have more trees planted by the end of the project, than were situated there prior to it.
A social media post by Arnold Cassola had showed the dramatic change with before and after photos of said square, given that the trees were removed, causing public outrage on social media.
Asked by this newsroom whether he believes the design of the square is good, after seeing the before and after images, he said: “We created a project that will help the environment in our locality. Why am I saying this, because we wanted to look at both the environment and the residents, and create a square for the people.”
He stressed that they followed discussions by environmentalists, with FAA, as to how they could do this, and said that together with FAA they, “saw how this project can be one that helps the environment, by uprooting the trees at a time when they are supposed to be taken off.
“We were criticised for this, as instead of uprooting them all at once, we were told to remove half first and the other half later, due to the ecology.”
He said the trees were replanted elsewhere and all lived. He said new trees were planted, and that while they look small, they will flourish and grow within two years.
He said that the project reduced the number of cars in the square, thus reducing emissions.
Asked whether government will be planting more trees, or at least the equal amount of trees, to the amount that used to be in the square, he said they increased the number of trees, and that in the coming days, they will plant more trees in front of the health centre, where planters are currently being installed.
The reason they are not replanting the previous trees there, he explained, was so as not to cause more trauma to the trees by uprooting them again, which would risk those trees dying. He said that the trees as they were before were causing damage to surrounding buildings, and thus indigenous trees are being planted.
He also said bushes will be planted in the coming days, and said that for him, the environment is a priority.
Parnis was not the only one to react to the criticism of the project.
Paola Square architect Christopher Mintoff said that it would have been cheaper to leave the Paola Square trees in their place but it was not feasible to do so
“It would have been the nicer and cheaper option to leave the existing trees but unfortunately it was not feasible,” he wrote. “The existing trees were slated to be removed for a long time, before the idea of the new design began. The trees were planted without containment and were damaging paving, the road, a large underground reservoir, and a WW2 shelter,” he said.
“The trees were damaging underground infrastructure including water, waste water, power etc. Major regional connections pass from the square. Property owners in the area were reporting damages from the roots too, and some even resorted to taking matters into their own hands. Ficus trees produce sappy spores which make the floor filthy - attracting insects and putting off pedestrians,” he added.
“Pedestrians were also put off by the fact that the square was essentially a roundabout, getting polluted from all around, with dangerous access to and fro. The redesign of the square meant that we could remove the roundabout, and substantially reduce the impact of traffic in the area.”
This meant a doubling of pedestrian space with much less idle pollution. All trees but one which roots had surrounded power cables were relocated within Paola his results in a net increase of trees in Paola. The new trees within Paola have large containers with root barriers which will mean they can grow without damaging the infrastructure,” he said.
Central Link uprooting
This newsroom also questioned Transport Minister Ian Borg about another controversy regarding the uprooting of trees along the Central Link project.
Transport Minister Ian Borg was asked why government chose to submit plans showing that a large amount of trees would be uprooted from Rabat road, Attard, when now government is saying this amount was reduced to 15. This project has been put under the microscope and has been the topic of much public criticism.
“When one has such a large project, and like any other project including smaller ones, the plans always continue developing, and one always improves upon them. Whoever published an article saying that 200 trees would be uprooted did not contact government or the authorities, as otherwise we would have told them that it was never the thought or plan for government or Transport Malta.”
“Immediately after that article, the plans were already updated and released after consultation with stakeholders, and the number of trees to be uprooted were reduced to 60. It is not good to lose a single tree, let alone 60, and we continued improving so that, firstly, only 15 of the existing 300 trees would be uprooted, and that another 300 trees would be planted along the project. So at the end of the project, there will be around 600 trees in total after the project concludes”
He said that if they can continue improving the plans they will, but stressed that “not doing the project is not an option. Attard has been struggling for years due to lack of planning, and this project needs to occur as quickly as possible.”
He said that he fears there might have been someone who tried to mislead regarding the trees, so that roads in Attard would not be widened.
This newsroom highlighted that the latest publicly available plans still show a large number of trees to be removed on Rabat road, to which the minister said that yesterday, officials from the Environment Ministry, and Transport Malta had continued improving the plans, and that yesterday they said 15 trees would be removed and not more from Rabat road. He said that if they can improve further they will.