Activists hang crosses in Santa Luċija tree ‘graveyard’

About a dozen activists yesterday attached crosses to a number of tree stumps at the Santa Luċija playground to protest their destruction as part of the tunnel project currently underway in the locality.

According to Infrastructure Malta, numerous trees are being chopped down to make way for the €20 million Santa Luċija tunnels project between Santa Luċija and Addolorata Cemetery Hill.

Activists who entered the cordoned-off site say they were heckled by construction workers, who they claim threatened to block their exit.

Environmental activist Sasha Vella said that the demonstration aimed to raise awareness of what is likely to happen in Attard “if we do not continue to fight and take a stand against the destruction that the Central Link project is set to bring to our environment.”

“This is a clear example of what has been going on in Malta – it is almost as if we are standing in a cemetery this morning.”

Fellow teen activists Tim Grech and Ruby Zammit told this newspaper that the crosses symbolised the future of Attard’s environment “if we do not work hard, and if we do not work together.”

Asked why the government was also dismantling parts of a recently upgraded jogging track, Minister for Transport Ian Borg said that a €90,000 investment should not stand in the way of a €20 million investment.

Infrastructure Malta insists that it is working with the Environmental and Resources Authority to minimise any negative ecological impacts.

Before works started, it says, the agency obtained the nature permits required to uproot 295 trees that need to be removed to build the tunnels and the new slip roads.

“Under the guidance of experienced arborists,” it said earlier this week, “another 254 trees are being prepared for transplantation in nearby areas, including the new jogging track.

“The new areas where the trees are being transplanted, mostly in Santa Luċija, were also approved by the authority. Along the project route and in other localities in the region, including Marsaskala, Infrastructure Malta is planting 757 new indigenous trees. Once the project is complete, the area will have 300 more trees than there are now.”