Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1047665
NEWS maltatoday | SUNDAY • 4 NOVEMBER 2018 12 • 57 • 22 • 21 • 49 14 • 53 • 30 03-11-2018 Draw No: 748 JAMES DEBONO A new 17-floor terraced build- ing set to include 63 apart- ments, overlooking the re- stored garden battery is being proposed by MIDI on an al- ready excavated site. The new building will have the same height of the nearby 82m-high Fort Cambridge development, which was ap- proved in 2008. The design foresees 10 full floors above the piazza level and seven overlying receding floors. An underground car park consisting of four lev- els will provide 118 parking spaces. A public vehicular access from the Midi complex onto Ix-Xatt ta' Qui-Si-Sana is also being proposed. The application presented by the developers also envisages the embellishment of public areas in the Garden Battery and adjoining areas including the construction of a pedestri- an bridge, a water feature, and staircases and lifts linking this level to the piazza. A new four-storey high block, which will have direct access to seaviews is also be- ing proposed. The latest Midi development to be approved in the Tigné project was a 13-storey build- ing above the entrance to the road tunnel that connects the Qui-Si-Sana side of the pro- ject together with the Sliema ferries. 17-storey extension for Midi YANNICK PACE THREE Greater Flamingos which are part of a flock current- ly at the Għadira nature reserve were shot at, shortly after flying out of the reserve on Friday. BirdLife Malta said in a state- ment that the three flamingos flew out of the reserve on Friday only for two to return, one of which had been shot in the neck. The NGO said that the other fla- mingo had "disappeared and not returned". The NGO said that over the past 12 months, the flamingos were among the most popular birds enjoyed by the thousands of school children, families and tourists that visited the reserve. The public, it said, was flocking to the nature reserve to see the ten flamingos. BirdLife said that the amount of protected birds shot during 2018 have made it the worst in the last six years, adding that the incident showed the sad reality of rampant illegal hunting going on in Malta and Gozo. BirdLife CEO Mark Sultana said it was disheartening to know that "people who are be- ing given the privilege to go out in the countryside with loaded shotguns for their enjoyment, can yet be disrespectful towards society". "We are aware that many hunt- ers would deplore this incident and also the many illegal hunt- ing going on, yet it is time for the hunting lobby to get rid of these people once and for all," he said. Sultana said BirdLife Malta would continue working with all stakeholders including the police, the government and the hunting lobby itself to reach this aim, whilst calling on the govern- ment to set up a Wildlife Crime Unit to seriously focus solely on wildlife crime. Flamingos shot after leaving Ghadira nature reserve