ERA files appeal against controversial Dwejra restaurant extension

The Environment and Resources Authority (ERA) has filed an appeal in order to ask the Court to revoke and cancel the decision by the Environmental Review Tribunal and the Planning Authority on 27 June granting an extension to a restaurant in Dwejra.

In its appeal, the ERA has claimed that the Tribunal failed to apply or misinterpreted the Strategic Plan for the Environment and Development (SPED), which protects biodiversity, cultural heritage, geology and geomorphology, by safeguarding protected areas.

The said it ERA believes that the Tribunal “also failed to recognize the problems arising from the intensification and expansion of development at Dwejra. The site is considered a Special Protection Area (SPA) and Special Area of Conservation (SAC) and is part of the Natura 2000 network because of its ecological importance”.

The ERA noted yesterday how the application intends to increase the seating capacity of the restaurant space in question. It said believes that the extension will result in more light and noise in the area that are detrimental to wildlife.

ERA also believes that in its decision, the Court focused on limiting light intensification, the fact that the canopy is limited in size and that it can be dismantled.

“In so doing,” the ERA said, “it disregarded the fact that the development will intensify the use of the area, contrary to the spirit of the decision taken previously, whereby the Authority made it clear that it wanted to reduce the intensification of this development because of the impact on such a sensitive site.”

The ERA said it believes that the development “will lead to the intensification of light pollution, especially at night, in an area that is a designated Dark Sky Heritage Area. Although the Tribunal observed that the operation of the restaurant, including the use of artificial lighting, remains under scrutiny by the authorities concerned, ERA believes that it is best to avoid these circumstances in the first place”.

The Tribunal had to consider that the proposed development is detrimental to biodiversity, especially on the population of Scopoli’s Shearwater and Yelkouan Shearwater, which are particularly sensitive to light and sound and are known to nest in the area.

The ERA is of the belief that “the message communicated to Maltese society by the Tribunal is worrying.

“Whilst the regulator for the environment was cautious not intensify man’s influence on the site in question and to ensure the protection of the UNESCO protected site, Natura 2000 and Dark Sky Heritage Area, the message passed by the Tribunal is an opponent one.”