Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/922844
maltatoday SUNDAY 7 JANUARY 2018 4 News CONTINUED FORM PAGE 1 Josephine Guntrip is a sharehold- er in Seaview Construction, which donated €20,000 to Labour through its subsidiary Seaview & Sons. Seaview is in the main owned by the Schembri family, of the Schem- bri Barbros construction group. Seaview & Sons also runs the Pit Stop fuel station in Attard, amongst others. The fuel station application was originally lodged in 2009, but since Labour's election and tweaks to planning rules, licences of fuel sta- tions inside town centres – in this case a Floriana licence – were al- lowed to be relocated outside devel- opment zones. The application got a green light from the PA's planning directorate but was opposed by the Environ- ment and Resources Authority. A €50,000 planning gain was imposed on the applicants for any environ- mental damage caused. Now the Environment and Re- sources Authority is objecting to the development of the rest of the area, a stretch of land outside de- velopment zones that forks off the main road leading into Marsaskala. The land hosts a spent quarry which the Schembri group want to develop into a shopping mall, offic- es and restaurants over some 9,750 sq.m. The ERA said that although the disused quarry is not an environ- mentally sensitive piece of land, this alone does not mean the area should be developed any which way. "The retention of the area as open space, possible restoration into ag- ricultural uses or other similar le- gitimate uses of the spent quarry, which is intended to improve the overall environmental quality of this rural area… ERA considers the proposed mixed development of concern from an environmental point of view given that this devel- opment would continue to intro- duce further commercial and urban development in a quarry, which should preferably be reinstated back to agriculture use, considering its location along an urban fringe," the authority said. "Such urban-type developments are more appropriate in areas al- ready designated for such use. Giv- en the site context being a spent quarry located outside develop- ment zone (ODZ), such uses should not be encouraged given that this is not designated for such uses." The ERA said the proposal was objectionable in principle, and de- manded that a full environmen- tal impact assessment is carried out, with full details of car parking spaces, and details on interventions on trees, and effects on air quality through the increase in traffic. Not all representations to the PA have been negative. One of the citizen representations, from Edward Grima Baldacchino of Zejtun, argued that the south should not be deprived of economic investment that could upgrade a derelict area. "This is a completely different, road-level quarry... it is completely abandoned and not ac- tive. No one objected to the major arterial road or the Family Park or Inspire Complex or Wasteserv fa- cility that were all taken from parts of this same disused quarry. It is high time common sense prevailed about the remaining part of this abandoned quarry… This can hard- ly be called ODZ when it is exactly on the periphery of and surrounded by built-up areas on all sides." Environmental NGO Nature Trust has objected to the ODZ ap- plication. "It is clear abuse of ODZ land to commercialise and capi- talise from a parcel of land which should not be developed at the first instance. Having a pre-1968 quarry, which has been naturally recolonised in parts, should be no excuse for development, and in- stead should be rehabilitated to its natural state by planting trees and shrubs. "Marsascala has more than enough restaurants and other com- mercial venues. Such an application would lead to urban sprawl and considering a large part of ODZ – Zonqor – has already been given up to development, such an applica- tion should be outright refused." One of the objectors, Dr Naomi Mugliette, said the site was not bar- ren and had at least 30 trees on site including a number of carob trees and bamboo. "The disused quarry constitutes only approximately one-third of proposed site [while] the rest of the plot consists of un- developed land full of decades old vegetation and fauna." Din l-Art Helwa (DLH) also object- ed to the application. "DLH does not agree that spent quarries should be converted to large commercial areas as this does not constitute the reha- bilitation of a quarry. Furthermore such a development will lead to fur- ther urban sprawl within ODZ." Labour donors seek shopping mall after fuel station permit Controversial ODZ fuel station green- lit by PA, now Labour donors want permit for 10,000 sq.m shopping mall in adjacent spent quarry CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 All 15 full-time lecturers at AUM were made redundant on 3 January by an email sent by provost John Ryder. No reason for the termination was given and the univer- sity was not obliged by law to provide one, given that all lecturers were still working their probationary period. The mass redundancies followed several job terminations in the previous months. The sources said the six-month proba- tion would have come to an end on 16 February. "It is evident that the wage cost was un- sustainable but the problem came as a result of weak planning. Student intake numbers were based on over-confident projections that failed to take into ac- count the difficulty of attracting people to a university with no track record," the sources said. In a bid to cut costs, AUM is expected to recruit part-time lecturers, a move, the sources believe should have happened at the very start of operations. In September 2016, just after AUM re- ceived a university licence from the Na- tional Commission for Further and Higher Education, Ryder went on record saying the institution would open its doors the following year with 300 students. However, 12 months later AUM could only attract 23 students. The AUM is run by Sadeen Malta Hold- ing Ltd, which is an offshoot of the Jorda- nian construction company Sadeen, whose only shareholder is Jordanian national Hani Saleh. The company was given a 99-year lease to operate a university with two campuses in Bormla and Marsaskala. Sources said works on the Bormla campus were ongoing but the AUM shareholder was uncomfortable with the tenuous financial situation. Construction works on the Zonqor Point campus in Marsaskala have not started amid calls from the Opposition for the land to be handed back to the public after AUM's failure to attract stu- dents. The university has had to revisit its tar- get and is now projecting a student in- take of 150 in the second academic year that starts in September. Despite the fi- nancial troubles, Ryder has insisted the AUM would be opening its doors again for students on 15 January when classes for the spring semester are slated to start. He told MaltaToday last Friday that it was business as usual at AUM and re- frained from commenting on "any staff action, whether particular or general". Ryder said AUM was expecting some new students to start this month, how- ever he would not say how many. AUM has embarked on several student recruitment drives overseas but Ryder has acknowledged that it was "challeng- ing" to attract people to a university that was starting from scratch. ksansone@mediatoday.com.mt AUM to recruit part-timers after mass redundancies Labour's first ever donation report to the Electoral Com- mission under party financing rules shows that its highest individual donors in 2016 in- clude the construction com- pany GAP Holdings, Attard Bros, Hal Mann, as well as the operator of the Pit Stop fuel station in Attard. In total it collected €93,000 in donations of over €7,000, which require identification of the individual donor under party financing rules. These donors comprised Attard Bros and Eurocraft (€10,000 each), €20,000 from Sea View & Sons, which op- erate the Pit Stop fuel station, €10,000 from Camland – of developer Charles Camill- eri, who is behind a high-rise proposal for the former Jerma hotel – GAP Holdings, Hal Mann, and BV Formosa, and €13,000 from the Marsaxlokk Labour Party club. Attard Bros was granted ap- proval for the development of 17,600 square metres of agri- cultural land in Marsaxlokk, on the same day the PA re- jected a similar 38,600 square metre development in Mosta: both sites were included in the extension of building bounda- ries carried out by the PN gov- ernment in 2006. GAP Holdings is planning a 40-storey tower hotel on the former Holiday Inn hotel it ac- quired through the Fort Cam- bridge development brief. Charles 'il-Franciz' Camill- eri, who is behind a proposed 28-storey tower project at the former Jerma Palace Hotel, donated €10,000. His relative Anton – also known by the 'Franciz' moniker – is the own- er of the Villa Rosa project. Construction loves Labour PHOTO JAMES BIANCHI ERA has said that although the disused quarry is not an environmentally sensitive piece of land, this does not mean the area should be developed any which way