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maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 27 AUGUST 2014 3 News JAMES DEBONO AN application to develop a brand new fireworks factory has been pre- sented by the Tal-Karmnu pyrotech- nics society in the open countryside in the area known as Ta' Anglu in Munxar. The Malta Environment and Plan- ning Authority had previously re- jected three applications to develop a fireworks factory on the same land or on adjacent land parcels. The proposed factory is being pro- posed over 7,050 square metres of undeveloped land and is scheduled as an Area of High Landscape Value. The application presented on 20 August is still being vetted by MEPA. The proposal is close to the site of a factory which exploded in 1997, killing two people. An application to rebuild it was presented in 1999 and was turned down twice, in 2002 and 2004. In 2007, yet another application was filed but this time it was with- drawn by the applicant before it was even considered by MEPA. Another application presented in 2008 was turned down in 2010. The development was proposed over a larger area, including the site of the development proposed in the latest application and an area closer to the Tas-Sanap coastal cliffs. But four years ago MEPA's De- velopment Control Commission unanimously turned down the ap- plication because the site falls within a scheduled area of high landscape value and because of the ecological and scientific importance of Xlendi Valley and the coastal cliffs just me- tres away. The original factory had been built according to a permit granted in 1988. In 1999, two years after the explosion which almost completely demolished it, the society filed an application to rebuild it but only part of it would have been constructed on the site where the previous factory once stood. This application had been refused and then dismissed at reconsidera- tion stage and again at appeals stage. The construction of new fire- works factories is not permitted by the Gozo and Comino Local Plan. Under this plan "there is a general presumption against new fireworks factories in Gozo". But this categorical exclusion of any such development may be over ruled by a new policy regulating the development of fireworks factories. The new policy which awaits final approval effectively bans fireworks factories in Areas of Ecological Im- portance (Levels 1 and 2) or Sites of Scientific Importance (Levels 1 and 2) but does not refer to Areas of High Landscape Value (like the site in question) and buffer zones to sched- uled sites. Munxar 'high landscape value' area eyed by fireworks society MEPA had refused three previous applications for fireworks factories on adjacent sites CONTINUES FROM PAGE 1 The Acting Police Commissioner confirmed that individuals are assessed by independ- ent medical practitioners, and not by the Police, when asked whether the Police had been involved in the deci- sion to send Busuttil to Mount Car- mel Hospital. Claims that the man was arrested and sent to Mount Carmel after a silent protest against the Malta En- vironment and Planning Authority (MEPA) outside Auberge de Castille first surfaced in The Malta Inde- pendent. The newspaper reported that Bu- suttil was arrested, interrogated and sent to Mount Carmel after the pro- test. In the past, it added, the man suffered from stress and sleep depri- vation. Standing outside the Office of the Prime Minister on three different occasions, Busuttil attached a poster to his car reading that MEPA did not treat everyone the same – presum- ably in relation to an enforcement notice the planning authority issued against Busuttil in 2009. According to the MEPA website, Busuttil faces an enforcement notice: the breach is the change of use from a private garage to a car wash without permit. According to the Police, Busut- til "dangerously parked his vehicle across the roundabout near Castille and refused to obey Police orders when ordered to remove the vehicle". This incident happened on 4 Au- gust and Busuttil received a parking ticket. The following day, Busuttil once again "parked illegally and danger- ously" in front of Castille. "The Police spoke to the man and informed him to call at the Valletta Police Station, where he was told he can express his views according to the law. On 8 August, the same man was again parked illegally near Castille. He was also negligently driving his vehicle around Castille roundabout and disobeyed Police orders when instructed to remove his vehicle," the Acting Police Commissioner said. Busuttil told The Malta Independ- ent that the doctor at the Floriana Health Centre gave him an appoint- ment to see a psychiatrist at Mater Dei the following morning, but the police, under arrest, took him to Mater Dei where he was seen by an- other doctor. He was then transport- ed to Mount Carmel via ambulance. The newspaper reported that he was sent to Mount Carmel for three days but stayed only one night. Protestor repeatedly disobeyed police orders Acting Police Commissioner Ray Zammit

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