FAA, Graffitti condemn PA Permit for Marsalforn Road Project
Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar and Moviment Graffitti strongly condemn the Planning Authority permit granted to the running of a motorway through Marsalforn Valley.
Martin Saliba PA CEO, took on the role of Infrastructure Malta promoter in insisting that the road needs to be upgraded to European TenT standards, failing to admit that these are formulated for trade routes, which is definitely not the case with Marsalforn, the NGOs said.
Instead, residents from the area testified that the road in question has no need to be widened since within living memory, there has been no congestion except for the Victoria and Marsalforn bottlenecks which will continue to hold up traffic.
While Infrastructure Malta repeatedly raised the spectre of accidents on this road, this was not substantiated by statistics, they added.
The eNGOs insisted that dangerous traffic should be remedied by traffic management measures, rather than having a whole valley and its agriculture ruined in order to accommodate reckless drivers by creating a straight wider road which will encourage more speeding. Infrastructure Malta admitted that no study of traffic calming measures had been carried out. 10,693sq m of agricultural land are to be taken up, destroying 300 trees and shrubs, of which 44 are protected species. The project will impact a waterway, dikes, water reservoirs and cultural landscape to widen a road to a village that is only inhabited for three months of the year.
Indeed, the traffic counts used to justify this project were taken at the peak of the Santa Maria week while no data was given for the rest of the year, the NGOs noted.
Prof. Victor Axiaq, ERA Chairman, stated that he was not comfortable with this project which is being touted to bring the road up to EU standards, when we should be setting standards which are suited to our land availability. Annick Bonello, PA NGO representative, voiced strong concerns about the tree transplantation plans, biodiversity issues and the concreting of country lanes. PA board member Gilmour Camilleri maintained that the project did not warrant such a take-up of agricultural land and highlighted the fact that while there was a lot of talk of Malta’s EU obligations regarding transport, there was no mention of Malta’s strong obligations with regards to sustainability and protection of ODZ. All three voted against the project.
FAA and Graffitti highlight the fact that Marsalforn Valley is Gozo’s largest valley system, sustained by wells, reservoirs and a unique network of centuries-old dykes that direct rainwater into the aquifer sustaining local agriculture, instead of allowing rainwater to run off into the sea. The destruction of this system in order to further enrich a few road contractors and encourage more cars is precisely contrary to the aim of the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD), which granted €8 million to promote resource efficiency and support the shift toward a low-carbon and climate-resilient economy in the Marsalforn agricultural sector.
The eNGOs point out that a €9 million contract to build this new road linking Rabat and Marsalforn was awarded to a group of Gozitan businessmen, led by construction magnate Joseph Portelli, even before the permit was approved. This consortium is involved in the operation of an illegal concrete batching plant in Kerċem set up in an illegal quarry, and is dumping construction waste without permits. This is a confirmation, if one was needed, of the crooked manner in which these matters are being handled and further identifies construction with corruption in Malta.
Flimkien għal Ambent Aħjar has called on the EU to demand full, independent environmental studies and to investigate funding irregularities for this project to run a motorway through Marsalforn valley, ruining one of Gozo’s beautiful, iconic landscapes.