Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/373141
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 31 AUGUST 2014 4 News JAMES DEBONO ENEMALTA is considering plans to construct an electricity substation at Armier to supply customers in the area, including the hundreds of squat- ters who inhabit the illegal shantytown (pictured) on illegally appropriated public land. The Malta Environment and Plan- ning Authority turned down plans for a substation under the previous gov- ernment in January 2012. Earlier this week Enemalta confirmed that it was installing smart meters in those illegal beach rooms which are already provided with electricity. Enemalta justified this as a measure to stop the theft of electricity. A spokesperson for Enemalta con- firmed that the corporation is seeking ways how to improve the area's distri- bution network, "which may require the building of a substation." The spokesperson claimed that En- emalta has for years been receiving complaints about voltage regulation issues from its customers at L-Ahrax tal-Mellieha and L-Armier areas. "Among these customers there are also several businesses which have properties or operations in the same areas." Apart from squatters, the area also includes some farmers and lidos. Two of these lidos are also illegal. The current government is bound by a pre-electoral agreement with the Armier lobby, promising to regularise boathouses constructed before 1992. An application to construct a substa- tion costing €82,000 next to the shanty town was first presented in 2007. The squatters had first raised their case for a reliable supply at a meeting with Minister Austin Gatt in Novem- ber 2005. According to the Armier boathouse owners' newsletter, the minister sim- ply told them that they were knock- ing on the wrong door and that they should talk to Enemalta directly. A month later the Armier squat- ters met an Enemalta official who told them that the only way to increase the voltage in Armier was through the construction of a new substation to replace the 2,000-metre long overhead lines. Just three months before the election, in November 2007, Enemalta applied to construct a substation at it-Torri l-Ahmar, a few metres away from the illegal boathouses. In 2008 a spokesperson for the Min- istry for Infrastructure, Transport and Communications justified the new substation arguing that the substation will "benefit all registered consum- ers in the area" and is "not specifically connected to the provision of supply to boathouses." In 2008 Enemalta confirmed that 110 boathouses in Armier were registered for electricity. But plans for a new substation were met by protests from environmental- ists and were rejected by the Malta Environment and Planning Authority in January 2012. During a public hearing Tarcisio Barbara, president of Armier Devel- opments Ltd, called on the MEPA to approve the substation in the light of a promise made by Prime Minister Law- rence Gonzi back in 2008. "Does not MEPA fall under the di- rect responsibility of the Prime Minis- ter?" asked Barbara to the applause of the squatters who packed the hall. But Sandra Magro, who was then chairman of the Environment Plan- ning Commission, answered that the authority was bound by its planning policies, in this case the Structure Plan, which calls on the authorities to de- molish all illegal buildings on the Mal- tese coastline. During the meeting the Enemalta of- ficial insisted that the substation was justified because of the low voltage in the area. He claimed that the nearest substation was 1,500 metres away and this meant that in summer voltage in the area was low. He was repeatedly challenged by Sandra Magro to specify which users existed in the 300-metre radius of the proposed substation, alluding that the only users were the Armier squatters. The Enemalta official replied that the Armier squatters were provided elec- tricity according to the legal frame- work, which existed in the 1970s and 1980s. Armier lobbyist Tarcisio Barbara in- sisted that the boathouses were there to stay and would never be removed as they catered for a social need rec- ognised by all parties. Therefore ac- cording to Barbara the boathouses should be supplied with electricity. He also held Enemalta responsible for any health hazards in the area if the substa- tion were not approved. The Planning Directorate argued that any ODZ development could only be approved if there was a justification for it and in this case there was no valid justification. Concluding the meeting ,Sandra Magro upheld the Directorate's argu- ment that there was no justification for the development. All members of the board voted against the development. Armier squatters likely to get substation after 2012 rejection CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 At the moment, each registered hunter is only allowed to shoot down four turtle doves or quail in spring. FKNK chief executive officer Lino Farrugia declared in a state- ment that the hunters' lobby was "fully supporting" the independ- ent study. "Such studies should occur on a regular basis as they are the only way we can obtain scientific and unprejudiced information about these birds' movements," the FKNK said in a statement. "For the fourth consecutive year, BirdLife Malta refused to partici- pate in such a study." But BirdLife said they were not consulted on the methodology of the tender, which will be crucial in determining whether Malta derogates yet again from the EU ban on spring hunting. "We chose not to participate in this study for three reasons," BirdLife's conservation manager, Nicholas Barbara, said. "If this study is independent then there's no need for us to be involved. The government didn't consult us much about the methodology of the study before they released the tender that was eventually awarded to Ecoserv. Moreover, we're focusing most of our re- sources on preventing the illegal hunting of birds of prey." In 2009, the Nationalist gov- ernment introduced a hunting curfew of 3pm for 15 days of the autumn hunting season, between 15 and 30 September. The reason was that protected birds of prey tend to fly low over Malta during that period. BirdLife had proposed to ex- tend this autumn curfew by a week while the FKNK wanted to push the curfew back to 7pm. In 2013, the newly-elected Labour government went halfway, ex- tending the curfew till 7 October and pushing it back to 7pm. "Turtle doves and quail are usu- ally hunted in the early hours of the morning," Barbara said. "Any hunting after 3pm is likely to be of protected species." "Moreover, by 7pm it will be too dark to ensure that the curfew is being respected. We therefore consider the Government's deci- sion to be equivalent to removing the curfew entirely." "This independent study will probably confirm that more turtle doves and quail fly over Malta in spring than they do in autumn," Barbara said. "How- ever, BirdLife's argument is that enough of these birds fly over Malta in the autumn to satisfy the hunters." Study will be used to justify derogation