Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/204636
11 News maltatoday, SUNDAY, 3 NOVEMBER 2013 esumption of shelved plans clined a plea from DLH to revoke the outline permit in view of Article 77. Former MEPA board member Philip Manduca on behalf of Din l-Art Helwa asked the chairman to reveal the reasons behind the rejection, however, Cassar stated he was not obliged to do so. "Our request to the Environment and Planning Commission in the Office of the Ombudsman is still pending and we await his response. His findings may cast more light onto whether Mr Cassar's decision that our request to invoke 77 was legally unjustifiable. Our legal advisors felt it was otherwise DLH would not have done it," Mizzi said. However, Mizzi feels the effort has raised great awareness and the public is outraged. She insisted that by invoking Article 77, DLH "exposed the incomplete, misleading and irregular proceedings that led to the Outline Permit being granted in May 2009. It showed too, that it should not be just NGOs championing the Environment. We have a Ministry for the Environment to do that". She drew a parallel with the controversy surrounding the vandalism of the Mnajdra Temples in 2001 when, after public indignation, the Cultural Heritage Act was born as a result. Mizzi expressed hope that the Strategic Plan for Sustainable Development and the new Structure Plan will be fast tracked to show government does have intentions to protect the environment. "So far from government we have only seen facilitation of a proliferation of construction. Where there are laws they have been flaunted, compounding the irregularities of the past, as seen in the Mistra case. Where there are building illegalities, they have been or will be condoned. Where there are no policies facilitating building, such as in the countryside, they are being created." She added that a Style Guidance Board should be established to decide whether buildings are to be considered acceptable and fulfill Parliamentary Secretary Michael Farrugia's "wish that no more box like structures are built, a wish we also share most wholeheartedly". The Mistra permit was based on the requirements of the Local Plan specifying that any departure from the Floor Area Ratio has to be justified by a building of high quality and top calibre design. "Who is there to judge this?" said Mizzi. "The MEPA Board had to take the responsibility that the new design does fulfill these criteria because we currently still do not have such a board despite the Kamra Tal Periti pushing for this for years." In the name of economic growth… Undoubtedly, the MEPA board and other protagonists in the decision making process, must have come under some kind of pressure to weigh up the environmental costs as opposed to the economic benefits of the Mistra redevelopment. The Kuwaiti-Maltese company behind the development have gone to great lengths, and at a great cost, to satisfy the obligations set by the outline permit and a rejection would have dealt the company a massive financial blow. Apart from the Transport Malta U-turn, the St Paul's Bay local council also seem to have had second thoughts on the project. Originally, the council, then led by a PN majority, had objected to the application. However, the new Labour mayor Mario Salerno, who was seen at the MEPA office on Thursday, failed to show up when called upon to substantiate his council's objection. Asked to explain his absence, Salerno told MaltaToday that nobody ever told him anything about this project and was absent because of other engagements. He claimed that the project was followed from its inception by Oliver Mallia, a councillor and acting curator of the underground World War II flourmill at Mistra. Salerno explained that Mallia attended all the meetings on this project, including Thursday's board meeting, where he remained for the whole session. "The meeting at MEPA started almost one hour late and at three thirty I had a very important meeting with the fishermen at the ministry. I stayed at the MEPA board meeting till 4pm and I could not stay longer as I had to be elsewhere." While explaining that Mallia informed him of the board decision at 5pm, Salerno said: "I can vouch that nobody ever told me anything about this project. In fact, I attended the board meeting because Mr Mallia had requested me to accompany him."