Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/783519
maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 8 FEBRUARY 2017 5 News ITS site development 'excessive and will worsen Paceville situation', Din l-Art Helwa says JEANELLE MIFSUD DIN l-Art Ħelwa has expressed alarm at the way the govern- ment is handling the Institute of Tourism Studies (ITS) site in St George's Bay, saying that the scale and intensity of develop- ment is excessive for the site and the area, and will only worsen the parking problem in Pace- ville. Last week, the government formally sealed a €60 million deal for the transfer of land at St George's Bay occupied by ITS, to Seaport Franchising, the com- pany owned by hotelier Silvio Debono of DB Hotels. Din l-Art Ħelwa argued that the government's commitment pre-empted the planning pro- cess, making it difficult for the Planning Authority to seek im- provements to the proposed de- velopment "By signing the agreement with the developers, the govern- ment has committed itself to the development as proposed, with- out taking into account urban planning considerations," the environment NGO said. "It also pre-empts the Plan- ning Authority's revision of the Paceville masterplan," it added. Din l-Art Ħelwa lamented the fact that the Malta Environ- ment and Planning Authority, the precursor of the PA, failed to prepare a development brief and issue it with the tender and to hold a public consultation. It also claimed that the tender was issued without reference to the Local Plan. "The lack of a development brief is evidenced by the many weaknesses that are immediate- ly apparent. The scale and inten- sity of development is excessive for the site and the area. There evidently was no consideration how the buildings will impact the immediate surroundings. There is a lack of public open space within the site. Further- more, the development does not appear to conform to Local Plan policies. The British barracks blocks, scheduled at Grade 2, will also be demolished," Din l-Art Ħelwa said, as it listed a number of what it considers shortcomings in the proposed developments. Din l-Art Ħelwa also referred to the parking and traffic prob- lems in the area, predicting that the situation would get worse as a result of the development. "Instead of using the site to ease some of the parking pressures on Paceville, the government will be allowing a development that will make the Paceville parking situation many times worse." Din l-Art Ħelwa called the government's attitude towards urban planning "unacceptable", and said that "this is ref lected in the process that led to last week 's signing of the agreement in the presence of the Prime Minister." Din l-Art Ħelwa urged the gov- ernment to allow the planning process to take its course, with- out interference. It also called on the govern- ment to allow the Planning Authority to evaluate planning applications in terms of current policy until the Paceville mas- terplan was finalised. "There is no economic argu- ment that supports the use of public assets in this manner," Din l-Art Ħelwa said. Flying start for year for MIA, with a 27.3% increase in passengers THE year is off to a flying start at Malta International Airport, with January having exceeded the 300,000 passenger mark for the first time. Hosting precisely 301,289 pas- sengers in January, surpassing the combined population of Malta's three largest towns, the airport's traffic for the month increased by 27.3%, or 64,699 passengers, over the same month last year. This growth was registered on the back of an upturn in both aircraft movements and seat ca- pacity, which grew by 22.1% and 27.7% respectively. Enhanced connectivity to markets such as Germany, Spain and Italy was an important contributing factor to this growth. Moreover, the seat load factor (SLF) also increased by 1 percentage point to reach 72.7%, indicating that airlines were more efficient in filling up available seats, as more tourists chose to travel to Malta. The United Kingdom, Italy and Germany were the top three con- tributors of traffic at Malta Inter- national Airport, with all three registering double-digit growth. Accounting for 15,784 and 13,903 passenger movements, Belgium and Spain, were the fourth and fifth top drivers of traffic to Malta during January. Looking at the top five airports delivering traffic to Malta, one notes that newcomer Catania Fontanarossa International Air- port established itself at the top of the list, following the intro- duction of added flight frequen- cies to this airport. The maximum take-off weight (MTOW) at the airport also ex- perienced a 26.8% growth to reach 104,108 tonnes and the weight of cargo and mail climbed to 1,305 tonnes from the 1,185 tonnes registered in January 2016.