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18 maltatoday EXECUTIVE EDITOR Matthew Vella MANAGING EDITOR Saviour Balzan Letters to the Editor, MaltaToday, Vjal ir-Rihan, San Gwann SGN 9016 E-mail: dailynews@mediatoday.com.mt Letters must be concise, no pen names accepted, include full name and address maltatoday | SUNDAY • 21 JULY 2019 22 July, 2009 PN President Victor Scerri resigns VICTOR Scerri announced his resignation as PN president late yesterday evening, barely a few hours after telling this newspaper he was ready to "sue MEPA" if the planning authority decided to revoke his Bahrija permit. Scerri's surprise decision came hard on the heels of a public statement by Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi, who said on Sunday that he was confident Scerri would "take the morally correct decision." Gonzi's cryptic message was not initially inter- preted as an indirect call for Scerri's resignation – at least, not by Scerri himself, who up until yesterday afternoon was still defiantly insist- ing that his ODZ permit should be validated by MEPA. At 2pm yesterday, Scerri told MaltaToday he had met Gonzi on Monday. "He (Gonzi) assured me he trusts my integrity." Scerri also shrugged off any pressure that Gonzi's statement may have placed upon his political career. "Some weeks ago in a newspaper interview, the Prime Minister said disciplinary measures should be taken in the case of mistakes in the planning process. From what the auditor has said so far, it seems I have done nothing wrong… what MEPA has decided is not my problem." Despite the controversial nature of his plan- ning application, and the MEPA auditor's claim that the permit should have never been ap- proved, Victor Scerri remained in defiant mood almost to the bitter end. He said that if his application were to be re- voked by MEPA, he would consider suing the authority. "It is one of the options available. If MEPA decides to revoke the permit using article 39(A), I can sue the authority." But in what appears to be a last-minute change of heart, Scerri issued a tersely-worded statement late yesterday evening, in which he claimed that his decision to resign had been taken out of his own free will, and that he had not been pushed to resign by anybody. Efforts to contact Scerri after his announce- ment proved futile. Scerri, whose villa was approved for construc- tion by MEPA on an ecologically sensitive pock- et of land in Bahrija, has been under pressure ever since the issue was made public during the European election campaign. Environmental NGOs were until yesterday railing against the PN president because the development, refused at various stages of the process, was finally approved by the Develop- ment Control Commission despite negative recommendations by MEPA case officers. Scerri himself stopped the development and asked MEPA's own auditor to investigate. Al- though his report is still unpublished, Joe Falzon has publicly stated that the permit should have never been issued… MaltaToday 10 years ago Quote of the Week A recipe for traffic-induced disaster Editorial "What just happened at the United Nations is that Russia made a decision to side with known gangsters and smugglers against Malta" US Embassy Chargé d'Affaires Mark Schapiro on the United Nations sanctions Malta asked to designate against oil smugglers THERE can be no doubt that the Central Link project represented a very real dilemma for the Planning Board. With the current rates of increase in car- use, doing nothing about traffic congestion will only result in a grid lock. But the con- sequences of this project are too stark to ignore. These include the loss of 50,000sq.m of agricultural land – the equivalent of seven football pitches – impacting the livelihood of 47 farmers. Other costs include enclosing a residential area in which 1,200 people live, in the new highway: effectively splitting a community. Ironically, only last week Prime Minister Muscat boasted of greatly improving the quality of life of the Maltese. But this will surely not be the case for the 1,200 citizens who will end up living on a centre-strip. Meanwhile, road-widening in various areas of Malta has already resulted in the perma- nent loss of around 40,000sq.m of agricul- tural land in various areas. But in this case, a staggering19,000sq.m will be taken up by the new bypass, and other roads feeding it. Added to this is the loss of mature trees. The promise of 770 new trees does not com- pensate for the loss of 272 fully mature trees, some of which may be older than anyone living in Malta at the moment. This is a pre- cious, irreplaceable part of our collective memory. Added to this is the absurd relocation of the historical buildings around the St Paul's Shipwreck church. Instead of re-routing the road, as originally proposed by the Superin- tendence for Cultural Heritage, Infrastruc- ture Malta is now intent on relocating parts of these buildings, divorcing them from their cultural landscape. Clear red lines must be established before infrastructural projects of this magnitude are undertaken. However, red lines will not solve the current impasse, which is also the result of lack of action during the past 50 years with regards to creating viable public transport options as an alternative to the private car. And yet, the new infrastructure is not pri- marily meant to accommodate bus lanes, but only cars. Even bike lanes have come as an afterthought, with the proposed lanes failing short of a real network which makes it pos- sible for cyclists to travel uninterruptedly along the new route. This means that the Central Link project will push the main Valletta-Rabat public transport service further away from resi- dents, making it less accessible. But the main problem remains the sheer number of cars on the road. The simple truth nobody wants to face is thatif we manage to reduce cars, we would not need wider roads. Nor can we afford to wait for a mass transit system, which can only come about in the next decades. The change has to be commenced now – today – through clear measures which include disincentives for car use, and active discouragement of single passenger car use; as well as incentives for car-pooling and the use of public transport. The Transport Master plan, approved in 2016, already establishes a clear objective in"the provision of alternatives to private vehicles to encourage sustainable travel pat- terns and reduce private vehicular demand in the congested hub area". It is incomprehensible that Malta has em- barked on a road-widening exercise before, and not after, implementing this objec- tive.Once a plan to reduce car use is clearly defined, it would be easier to re-assess the Central Link project on the basis of fewer and not more cars on the road. Transport Minister Ian Borg is duty-bound to present such a plan. Instead, he seems only interested in establishing himself as a "doer" by embarking on a series of road-widening projects. The project has also been justified as a way to improve air quality, as a result of decreas- ing congestion: ignoring the impact on 1,200 residents who will end up even more exposed to emissions. Moreover, the EIA calculations are also based on the assumptionthat vehicles will still be powered by the internal combustion engine by 2045 – ignoring the real possibility that electric cars will be the norm in the near future. All things told, it is difficult not to suspect that the rush for this new road infrastructure is dictated by the demands posed by high-rise developments in Mriehel. In its final report, the Environmental and Resources Authority hit the nail on the head by insisting"that the traffic abatement issue should also be addressed at a strategic level through sustainable measures that effectively reduce dependence on car transport". Unfortunately, its representative on the board, Prof. Victor Axiak, did not even qualify his support for the project. Like other government appointees on the board, Axiak simply voted in favour of the project without even opening his mouth: without asking any question, without seeking any clarification on one of the greatest take-up of ODZ land in recent years. This, in itself, raises questions on how ERA plays second fiddle to other considerations, leaving the citizen more vulnerable. Clearly, the regulatory authorities are not doing their job properly. Equally clearly, the Transport Ministry is motivated by short- term strategies that will only exacerbate ex- isting problems in the near future. This is a recipe for disaster.