Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/252940
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 2 FEBRUARY 2014 8 EXPENSES on maintaining the Maltese government's €21 million permanent representation build- ing in Brussels, 'Dar Malta' have amounted to over €8 million in just under seven years. The building's acquisition was controversial from the start for the expense incurred in purchasing the seven-storey building right outside the European Commission's Berlay- mont building. Government has so far managed to only bring in €800,000 in rents for the floors that it does not utilise. It has taken Malta's presidency of the European Union in 2017, to finally see another floor of the controversial nine-storey property being used. Malta's permanent representation occupies the top four storeys of the Rue Archimede premises. The fifth floor is occupied by Malta's embas- sy to Belgium, and another two are occupied by third parties – amongst them Volkswagen. The third floor, currently not being leased out, is used for lunches, breakfasts, confer- ences and receptions organised by the Maltese mission. Another empty floor, as yet un- leased, will now be used for the preparation for Malta's 2017 presi- dency of the Council. Notwithstanding that a whole floor at Dar Malta was not being utilised, the Maltese mission in Brussels opt- ed to lease a storage space of 87 cu- bic metres for an annual €4,784 cost, to store donated furniture, rather than use this empty floor. To date it spent €18,000 to store furniture do- nated by the Chinese government, from a long-standing agreement with China, which donates around Lm100,000 (€233,000) in kind to Malta every three years. But when the Chinese furniture arrived in 2007, handlers unpacked chipped chairs, broken desks and other items damaged or missing on the long trek from Beijing, just on the grand opening day of the house in Brussels. It would seem notwithstanding the donation, much of this furniture was hidden away in some storage space. In 2012, Dar Malta also spent a staggering €70,000 for new carpets and marbling. JAMES DEBONO RESIDENTS in Sliema are sepa- rating the greatest amount of waste, with each resident separating an aver- age 49kg in the first eleven months of 2013. The amount of waste separated in Sliema was twice the national average of 25kg per resident. This emerges from an analysis of sta- tistics presented to parliament showing the total amount of waste deposited in grey bags in each locality. The amount of waste for each locality was than di- vided by the number of residents. The analysis shows that localities in the south of Malta and the inner har- bour area, are the least likely to sepa- rate their waste. This seems to tally with other social indicators showing inner harbour localities having the lowest levels of educational achieve- ment. Surprisingly, Marsaskala residents are among the least civic-minded. Despite hosting the Sant' Antnin recy- cling plant, and therefore having a di- rect interest in reducing the amount of mixed waste entering the plant, each resident only separates 16kg of waste. The lowest level of separation is reg- istered in Malta's capital city Valletta, where only 42 tonnes of separated waste was collected between January and November 2013. This amounts to just 7kg per resident. Waste separation rates are also low in Gozo, where on average each resi- dent separates 20kg of waste, 5kg less than the Maltese average. Presently people are expected to put out the grey bag for recyclable packag- ing waste on Tuesdays. Under the new waste plan, by 2015 the collection of mixed waste will take place only once a week, while the collection of organic waste will take place three times a week. Pres- ently no separate collection exists for organic waste, while the collection of black bags – containing mixed and or- ganic waste – takes place on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Only 23% of waste is currently being separated. The target for 2020 is to in- crease the rate of separation to 50%. The low rate of separation creates a dependency on landfills. "Basically by putting all kinds of waste in a mixed bag we would oc- cupy more space in a landfill. It is only be minimizing the amount of waste that we can minimize the need for fa- cilities. In this way we also minimize the impact on resources like energy and land use," waste policy coordina- tor Kevin Gatt warned in an interview published on MaltaToday back in No- vember 2013. News TECHNICAL ATTACHE` Sliema top locality for recycling, Valletta at the bottom Localities with highest per capita waste separated in grey bags Kg Sliema 49 Mqabba 46 Mgarr 45 Ta' Xbiex 44 Mellieha 40 Attard 37 Msida 37 Gharghur 35 Mdina 34 Balzan 33 Kirkop 33 Localities with lowest per capita waste separated in grey bags Kg Luqa 16 Marsaskala 16 Paola 16 Isla 16 Santa Lucija 15 Kalkara 15 Vittoriosa 14 Birzebbugia 13 Bormla 13 Xghajra 8 Valletta 7 Sliema residents are the most sensitive to recycling obligations Dar Malta maintenance costs top €8 million Villa Bonici decision expected on Thursday JAMES DEBONO THE Malta Environment and Plan- ning Authority Board will be meet- ing next Thursday to determine the fate of an application to develop the Villa Bonici site in Sliema. The local plan approved in 2006 makes it clear that development can only be permitted on the site following the formulation of a de- velopment brief for the whole site. The case officer's report reveals that discussions have already started with the owners to devise a new development brief. In fact the developers have been asked by the Planning Directorate to withdraw the present application until MEPA finalises the brief. But the owners have pressed on with the applica- tion. The decision was deferred by a month during a board meeting held on 9 January. This was done to allow "the ap- plicant to consider his position and for the Directorate to confirm its intentions regarding the Develop- ment Brief". On the eve of the last meeting the developers presented four different proposals for development in the area. The proposed development con- sists of 188 apartments in four residential blocks ranging in height between two and 12 floors. The main reason given in the case officer's report for refusing the de- velopment is that no development brief, as stipulated by the North Harbour Local Plan, has been de-