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4 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 12 MARCH 2023 NEWS Gzira mayor not excluding independent bid for re-election JAMES DEBONO POPULAR Gżira mayor Con- rad Borg Manché is not exclud- ing contesting the next round of local elections in 2024 as an independent, strongly hinting he wants to continue serving his locality as its mayor. Borg Manché has fallen out with Labour over the Lands Authority's plans to take back 900sq.m of garden space to re- locate a 300sq.m petrol station just 100m away. The Gżira may- or, whose campaign against the relocation of the petrol station is backed by an 8,000-strong petition, has said he is flabbe- gasted by the fact that Labour's party president Ramona Attard, a lawyer by profession, is repre- senting the Authority in in the appeal against the tribunal deci- sion which revoked the reloca- tion. "I do not exclude anything because even a week in politics is a long time," Borg Manché. Asked whether he will be re- contesting with the Labour Par- ty, Manché replied that he can- not answer this question. "This does not depend solely on me but on them...the par- ty does not belong to me but belongs to its members and it should be up to them to decide whether I should represent the party.... what am sure is that as regards principles I am in the right place...." But he makes it clear that he would like to continue serv- ing the locality as its mayor. "Honestly I cannot imagine my- self doing something else." Borg Manché has also con- firmed that he was not even contacted by Prime Minister Robert Abela following his strong comments accusing At- tard of being "anti-socialist" and after expressing misgivings on the lack of support from the party in his defence of a public open space. He also expressed concern on the ideological direction taken by the party. "I joined the La- bour Party because I am a so- cialist. I hail from a PN-leaning family but could never join the PN because I am a socialist. Un- fortunately, these principles are being lost," he said. "My mission is to represent the small fry, those who do not have a swim- ming pool or a boat... those who only have the public foreshore to enjoy." The straw that broke the cam- el's back revolves around the relocation of a 300sq.m petrol pump in the vicinity of the Ma- noel Island bridge, to a 900sq.m site within the Council of Eu- rope Garden. Originally the petrol pump and an adjacent ki- osk had to be relocated because of a proposed road project link- ing the Strand to Regional Road, but the controversial project, which would have bisected the locality, was aborted. Yet the application to relocate the petrol station presented in 1999 was surprisingly ap- proved 20 years later during a PA planning commission meet- ing in which Borg Manché had attended by sheer coincidence while following another unre- lated permit, which happened to take place on the same day. Borg Manché points out that the meeting was held on the same day as his investiture as mayor, something which raised his sus- picions that even the date of the meeting was pre-arranged to make sure that he would not be present. "I was lucky enough to be there at the right time and at the right moment. I thank God for that." Borg Manché expressed his suspicions that he was being set up. "Just imagine how my credibility would have been obliterated had I not attended that meeting and the relocation approved without my knowl- edge... It would have meant that all the credibility I gained while campaigning on Manoel Island would have been lost." Moreover, while other appli- cations for fuel stations were taken by the Planning Board in which the Gżira council would not only have been informed but would have had a vote, the decision was taken by the three-member Planning Com- mission. Although the project was ap- Labour mayor Conrad Borg Manché said he will stay loyal to his oath of office and his party's socialist principles in opposing a Land Authority relocation of a fuel pump over 900sq.m of Gżira's Council of Europe gardens Gzira mayor Conrad Borg Manché was interviewed by James Debono, in an interview that will broadcast on MaltaToday.com.mt