Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1266179
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 5 JULY 2020 9 NEWS MCAST is an equal opportunities employer. MCAST IS RECRUITING • Project Administrator - ERDF 9.036 (Jobsplus Permit Number 679/2019) Closing date Wednesday 8 th July 2020 by 12.00pm. For further details, requirements and application process go to MCAST job portal http://jobs.mcast.edu.mt *Jobsplus Permit Number Opera onal Programme II – European Structural and Investment Funds 2014-2020 "Inves ng in human capital to create more opportuni es and promote the well-being of society" Project part-financed by the European Social Fund Co-financing rate: 80% European Union; 20% Na onal Funds high-rise will apartments Visual impact of the DB and Mercury House projects as viewed from Ta' Giorni (below) and Valletta taken for the first part of the development would not require air quality studies by proposing a project that generates an in- crease 1,000 daily car trips. The entire high-rise project will consume approximate- ly 7,000MWh of energy every year, amounting to 0.3% of to- tal electricity Malta generated in 2017. The energy consumed by the building is the equiva- lent of that consumed by 1600 people. The latest addition is envis- aged to have a consumption of 3,500MWh in annual energy, while the project will produce 54,000 cubic metres of con- struction waste. Ain't it bizarre? ERA says Fgura farmhouse can't go to Bidnija JAMES DEBONO THE Environment and Resources Authority has shot down plans by the owner of a farmhouse in Fgura, who wants his house to move brick by brick to the pristine Bidnija countryside. The bizarre planning application is to dis- mantle the 130 sq.m farm building from Wied Blandun in Fgura, and relocate it to Bidnija. Owner Shaun Bonavia, who has previously re- quested zoning permits to extend A.M. Valper- ga street in Fgura for new developments, claims he wants the farm building relocated because of the development of a new road – proposed by the same landowners. The Fgura site is in close proximity to an ur- ban area, while the Bidnija area is at the edge of a prominent ridge (Ġebel Għawżara), consist- ing of open land characterised by rocky steppe and maquis habitats, and surrounded by agri- cultural fields – part of it is an Area of Ecologi- cal Importance. But the ERA is insisting that the proposal is not a legitimate 'like-with-like' replacement of the existing building. "There is no valid justi- fication for the extravagant relocation from a peri-urban area just off the Fgura development zone, to a completely different edge-of-ridge site at Bidnija." ERA has called for more reasonable alterna- tives, like marginally shifting the building with- in the same site at Fgura, or the redesign of the proposed road formation at Fgura. But apart from that, the ERA said a building on the undeveloped site at Bidnija was of signif- icant environmental concern, as this would re- sult in the uptake of rural land to accommodate urban development. Nature Trust also expressed its perplexity on how an application affecting two different sites can even be presented, noting that the appli- cation was so bizarre that it should not have been even published. "Transferring or building any structure at Bidnija would mean building in ODZ, which is illegal… Moreover, if the ru- ral structure has any heritage value then this should remain within the Fgura area and not transferred to a completely different rural con- text." The ERA is insisting that the proposal is not a legitimate 'like-with-like' replacement of the existing building