Żabbar to Smart City road is a proposal for the few, ADPD says
The proposal to build a road from Żabbar to Smart City which will obliterate 80 thousand square meters of agricultural land, the size of 11 football pitches, is the result of a vision buried under the financial interests of the few, ADPD - The Green Party said Saturday.
In a press conference held near the Cottonera Lines fortifications which will lie next to the proposed development, ADPD’s Deputy Secretary General Mario Mallia remarked that 30 cars are being added to our already congested roads every day. The last thing that should be on the country’s mind given this stark reality is the further encouragement of this pattern, as opposed to investment in alternative means of transport. ADPD expressed its agreement with the proposals made by Friends of the Earth suggesting the introduction of ferry transport between Valletta, Cospicua, and Smart City. This proposal is much more logical than the creation of yet another road that will gobble up more of the precious little agricultural land available.
During the inauguration of the Shoreline Complex in Smart City, the Prime Minister thanked the complex’s investors for providing an environment where families can spend their quality time together. If spending quality time is equivalent to time spent in a shopping mall for the Prime Minister, then we strongly disagree with him. This, argued Mallia, betrays a warped vision that subjects everything, including families and their quality time, to the whims of commercial interests.
“Children and their families in the south should be guaranteed the right to spend their quality time in fresh air and in open spaces, not in a commercial complex which robs the public of yet another piece of the country’s foreshore,” argued Mallia. ADPD is therefore proposing that the San Klement park, which has recently been upgraded, be extended to include the Cottonera
Lines, so that families, especially those from the south, have better facilities for recreation in an open environment. Funds allocated to Project Green should not be used to mitigate the ongoing destruction of open spaces, but to generate and take care of the open spaces available.
The Chairperson of ADPD, Sandra Gauci, further emphasised that building the proposed road to Smart City will only serve those involved in speculation in Smart City itself. Gauci referred to the fact that back in 2007, the land at Smart City was handed over to a Dubai consortium at a pittance for 99 years to develop the area as an information technology hub. Indeed, the Project Development Statement originally tabled in parliament in 2007 only spoke of residential development to cater to the labour force working at Smart City itself. But much like the situation in the hospitals privatisation saga, when the Smart City concept failed to take off, rather than taking back the land, the government renegotiated an agreement that allowed speculation on this public land to include high-end real estate. “Public land keeps being dished out in a piecemeal fashion for fat cats to keep making a killing,” Gauci said.
Gauci made a list of speculative developments that have characterised Smart City. These include the Shoreline development itself, with 400 apartments and the shopping complex inaugurated recently. There is also the approval for an 11-storey hotel and another block of 69 villas next to Smart City. Apart from these developments, Gauci referred to the relocation of the American University of Malta in return for the relinquishing of the proposed scandalous development of public and pristine land in Żonqor made available by the Muscat government. Lastly, she mentioned the relocation of ITS, which made way for the other scandalous DB development currently underway in St George’s Bay.
“All this goes on to show how the government is being held hostage by financial interests that leave the general public out in the cold in their own country, with public land being lost by the hour,” Gauci said. Gauci emphasised that ADPD is committed to protecting public interests together with other well-meaning individuals and organisations who understand that it pays to do so.