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6 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 11 SEPTEMBER 2024 NEWS MATTHEW VELLA mvella@mediatoday.com.mt JAMES DEBONO jdebono@mediatoday.com.mt PJAZZA l-Assedju ta' Ghawdex in Victoria has now been ear- marked for the development of a four-level underground car park with an overlying floor of com- mercial space topped by a roof garden. The development is being proposed in a planning appli- cation presented by the Gozo Regional Development Au- thority. The commercial floor is set to include shops, catering estab- lishments, exhibition halls, and educational facilities. The square, which currently serves as a car park, was pre- viously identified for a similar underground car park topped by the relocated Gozo Law Courts, which suffers from structural and accessibility is- sues. The law courts were first pro- posed for the site in an applica- tion presented under a PN-led administration in 2008. The permit for the construc- tion of the law courts on the same site was finally issued in 2016 and was last renewed in June. However, the govern- ment has since had a change of heart regarding the location of the law courts, and in 2022, a Preliminary Market Consulta- tion for the building of a new courthouse in Gozo was issued in a bid to find a new site. In its electoral manifesto the Labour Party is committed to find a new site for Gozo's law courts. Commercial Centre proposed instead of law courts in Rabat Square Farmers demand government action to stop sale of fields for recreational use Plans proposed by the Regional Development Authority envisage a four-storey underground car park, a f loor of commercial development, and a roof garden. The proposal is for the development of a four-level underground car park. an overlying commercial space and a roof garden THE non-agricultural use and division of rural fields in Malta is leading to drastic changes in the island's landscape, where what were once cultivated fields have now been turned into tiny plots separated by low walls, empty or over- grown with wild grass, invasive trees or high walls along the road for privacy, being used for cars or bouncy castles for children's parties. The complaint, and warning, comes from 24 agricultural NGOs and lobbies along with the Chamber of Architects, who have called on the government, and the public, to recognise that the use of farmland for recreational purposes should cease immediately. "The demand for using farmland for non-agricultural purposes has exploded in recent years due to various factors, ranging from the need for outdoor activi- ties during the COVID pandemic, exces- sive urbanisation, a lack of open spaces in urban areas, and other reasons," said Malcolm Borg, of Għaqda Bdiewa Attivi. Adding to the woes of farmers is that new generations of landowners and retired ag- riculturalists have no interest in farming, and are instead liquidating the fields. "In exceptional cases, even produc- ers who found themselves struggling to manage their businesses found it attrac- tive to sell the land they worked," Borg said. "Not only: these various landowners began dividing the land into small plots since buyers' recreational needs were for small pieces of land, maximising prof- its with an astronomical increase in the price of farmland – 20 times higher than the average price in the EU." Borg said Malta's landholding crisis was talking place in a world where food security is becoming increasingly precar- ious, and the climate crisis was increas- ingly threatening food production. "Our country's vulnerability to such waves is very high since it imports more than three-quarters of the food consumed by the population. This is why every patch of soil must be protected with all our might, and its potential to produce food must be ensured to be fully realised," Borg said. The NGOs said the recreational use of productive farmland was a serious threat to Malta's country's ability to sustain food production. "It is also, frankly, absurd that while we have land being used for a million non-agricultural purposes, many pro- fessional farmers are searching for more land to work on to produce food for the local market," Borg said. He cited Malta's tomato processing and grape production sector for wine as an example. "The entire agricultural in- dustry is searching for land to produce food and drink while contributing eco- nomically. But farmland is nowhere to be found! Because it's being taken for speculation! And the land on the mar- ket is priced at a level that can never be justified for food and drink production alone." The NGOs said the sale of agricultur- al land for recreational purposes had to stop immediately. "It is essential to ensure that productive land is used for productive purposes, that farmland is entrusted to those who know and want to work it, and that the Maltese rural landscape is safeguarded with everything that genuinely makes it rural," Borg said. "We must act now to protect our coun- try's farmland so that it continues to ful- fil its function as it has since people first set foot on it – to produce the food and drink that keep us alive."

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