ITS project a tenfold stench - FAA
As Thursday, 20 September 2018 recedes into the background, the anger and hostility surrounding a Planning Authority (PA) board meeting on the ITS site project being developed by the db Group and its subsequent approval against all logic, reason and quality of life for much of the nation, festers on, Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar (FAA) has said in a statement.
“The triumph of one developer’s greed and gluttony, openly supported by the highest ministries down to the boards of our Planning Authority, has not yet left the awareness of civil society. On the contrary, the anger, indignation and frustration has taken on a personal level – directed squarely at the ten PA board directors who voted in favour of this monstrous development.
“Their pathetic attempt to hide sheepishly behind a volley of contradicting policies, calculations, extrapolations and prognostications, does not free them from their gross irresponsibility.”
The FAA remarked: “The ten directors (on the PA board) had a golden opportunity to put the brakes on one of the most dishonest land transfer deals Malta has witnessed. But no, they huddled around each other and did otherwise, sealing a pact with the devil. Nothing and no one will supply a valid excuse for their roles in this filthy game.
“In the marathon meeting at the Ħamrun Lyceum, the eNGOs and public were regaled with lavishly complicated assessments, illogical opinion pieces and fancy calculations, in a gross attempt to persuade the average Maltese citizen that the monstrous and downright trashy architectural attempt on land rightfully belonging to the nation can somehow be justified.
“There was endless talk of green facades, which are as green as any piece of rendered block-work currently available in Malta. A Green Travel Plan, equally as useless as the paper it was printed on, and which cannot be implemented given the missing infrastructure, zero incentives and absolute lack of political will for such concepts. The presentations were utterly meaningless, and the ten sat by, nodding their heads like puppets, lacking the backbone to call a spade a spade.”
The Traffic Impact Assessment, FAA said, “was absurd from every angle.”
“The applicant now admits that there are serious traffic issues around St George’s Bay. What a surprise! Every driver faces these problems daily. So the ten simply sanctioned an even more ludicrous solution to the problem: force the taxpayer to pocket the bill for a tunnel costing millions and millions of euros in order for their developer to become even richer on the strength of land cheated away from that very same taxpayer. Furthermore, if the Planning Authority and its henchmen can simply decide to bully the government into planning new roads to satisfy the needs of a developer, why do we even need Transport Malta?
“And then came the totally warped calculations of the extensive Environmental Impact Assessment. Shadow studies were presented, showing even the dimmest that Pembroke is well and truly stitched up once this demon has been approved. The long-distance views and photomontages shook everybody. But the smug ten sat idly on, in an air of complacency, happily watching the developer kick the whole of Pembroke in the groin, making no attempt to stop such a savage attack. The sight was well and truly stomach churning; just sickening.
“Their conscience toward the community no longer exists, if it ever did. The gratification they got for inflicting this on thousands of residents comes at a price as the ten directors have now become the poster boys and girls of all that is rotten in this little island state. Whatever you do in the future, your name is mud and your reputations will forever be overshadowed by this decision.”
Their pathetic attempt to hide sheepishly behind a volley of contradicting policies, calculations, extrapolations and prognostications, does not free them from their gross responsibility