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MALTATODAY 28 November 2018 Midweek

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maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 28 NOVEMBER 2018 4 NEWS JAMES DEBONO AFTER a decade-long saga, an applica- tion presented by Ghaqda Nar Maria Bambina for the construction of a fire- works factory on protected land in the vicinity of Popeye village seems now destined for a second refusal. The PA will be taking its final deci- sion on 12 December but weighing on the decision are two reports calling for the refusal of the application, namely the case officer report issued by the Planning Directorate and a report is- sued by the ad-hoc technical commit- tee, which assesses applications for fireworks factories, The application presented in 2009 after the Planning Authority clamped down on the illegal manufacture of fireworks in rooms in the area, was refused in 2011. But subsequently an appeal was lodged against this deci- sion. Following the approval of a new policy regulating fireworks factories, the Environment and Planning Review Tribunal (EPRT) ordered a reassess- ment of the application according to the new policy. The site of the proposed factory lies within a proposed Level 2 Area of Eco- logical Importance and is therefore considered inadequate in terms of the policy regulating new fireworks facto- ries. An ecological assessment report confirmed that the proposal is objec- tionable from an environmental point of view. The development would lead to fur- ther disturbance of the natural envi- ronment as it would require the exten- sion of the existing passageway, since the proposed access points are not lo- cated on legally established roads. The ad-hoc technical committee concluded that due to the ecological constraints, the site area is quite re- stricted in size to incorporate a com- plete fireworks factory, and therefore the application should be rejected. The Mellieha factory could not ben- efit from a recent legal notice which regularised illegal fireworks factories erected before 1994. The legal notice had been amended to specify that only establishments op- erational in 2016 would benefit from the amnesty. This effectively ensured that the controversial Mellieha fire- works factory, served with an enforce- ment notice for illegal buildings in 2009, won't be legalised since it was not operational in 2016. Farmers in Tal-Ghajn have strongly objected to the proposed fireworks factory in the area, Interviewed by MaltaToday in 2015 the farmers ex- pressed preoccupation for their per- sonal safety. "For us this is nothing but a time bomb waiting to explode," one farmer told MaltaToday. One farmer recalled how 12 years ago, she was walking to her farm to pick marrows when she witnessed the effects of an explosion from the illegal manufacture of fireworks in the area, which blew pieces of a room's roof next to a reservoir and a borehole used by the farmers. The farmers insisted that they have nothing against a new fireworks facto- ry but only if this is built further away from them and not just a few metres from where they have their farmland. The Ghaqda tan-Nar Maria Bambina rebutted by claiming that before 2009 the surrounding fields were not used for agricultural purposes and consist- ed of rugged terrain, adding that it was only in more recent years after the ap- plication for the fireworks factory was presented that farmers started "plying their wares next to the land in ques- tion." The end of a saga Mellieha fireworks factory heading for second refusal

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