Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/954081
maltatoday WEDNESDAY 14 MARCH 2018 News 5 A new four-storey hotel build- ing consisting of 62 rooms is being proposed on agricultural land in an ODZ rural hamlet midway between Xaghra and Marsalforn. New development in rural hamlets is normally limited to two floors and is limited to resi- dences and hostels. The site presently consists of an abandoned agricultural farmhouse with a 220sq.m footprint, and adjoining agri- cultural fields. The hotel and an adjacent three-storey terraced house will be built over a footprint of 1812sq.m of which 720sq.m will be built up. 917sq.m of land is earmarked as a pool area. The development described as a "3-star agro-tourism boutique hotel" is being proposed by de- veloper Alfred Refalo and will be managed by Frankie Spiteri who also manages the Quaint Hotel chain in Gozo. A project development state- ment (PDS) was presented by Environmental Management Design Planning, a company owned by Planning Commis- sion member Mariello Spiteri The study authored by archi- tect Stephan Vancell deems the visual impact of the new hotel as a minor one despite "notice- able changes to the view". The demolition of the old farmhouse and rubble walls is deemed to have a minor nega- tive impact on the cultural herit- age because of their dilapidated state and the fact that there are "better conserved examples." But excavation works "may possibly impinge on buried re- mains," due to proximity to ar- chaeologically sensitive areas. The owner claims that he has reached agreements with adjacent landowners to use ad- jacent fields to offer guests an "authentic rural lifestyle while living and sleeping in modern accommodation facilities". There are also plans to have "a few animals like horses and goats" in these fields. In its first report on the de- velopment the Superintend- ence for Cultural Heritage had described the area as "archaeo- logically sensitive owing to the discovery of rock-cut tombs" and argued that the existing farmhouse which is deemed to have "vernacular value" merits inclusion into the proposed de- velopment. For the Superintendence "the building height will pre- sent a heavy mass of building that will negatively impinge on the existing streetscape, skyline and countryside". While reaffirming its ob- jections to the project, the Environment and Resources Authority has exempted the project from an EIA noting that the "main environmental im- pacts of the development relate to urban sprawl" beyond the hamlet's boundary. Instead of further EIA studies ERA called for a down-scaling of the project to avoid any en- croachment beyond the edge of the ridge onto the underlying rural land. New hotel proposed in Gozitan rural hamlet Hotel and terraced house proposed on agricultural land presently occupied by an old farmhouse expected to have "minor impact" on landscape according to consultants Photomontage of the proposed hotel from the front MEP welcomes Timmermans's announcement that European Commission is actively pursuing anti- SLAPP laws INTERVENING during a meeting of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs in Stras- bourg, Nationalist MEP Da- vid Casa reiterated his call on Commissioner Frans Timmermans to propose EU legislation that would coun- ter abusive SLAPP practices. "Strategic lawsuit against public participation" are expensive lawsuit actions against media companies in foreign courts that make it impossible or expensive for newspapers to contest, cre- ating pressure and a deter- rent against reporting. "The use of these practices constitute a serious threat to media freedom and should be addressed at EU level," Casa, the PN's head of del- egation in the EP, said. Casa pointed out that he had written to the Commis- sion on a number of occa- sions, in order to call for these practices to be addressed. "It is unacceptable that we allow companies with unlimited resources to bully and in- timidate independent media with vexatious lawsuits in jurisdictions outside the Eu- ropean Union." Casa said that Pilatus Bank – which is the subject of a magisterial inquiry into the laundering money for the Maltese Prime Minister's chief-of-staff – "succeeded in concealing truth and ef- fectively re-writing history" by threatening multi-million dollar lawsuits in the US state of Arizona, a jurisdic- tion that has no nexus to any of the parties. A case was filed against the murdered journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. "In the EU we should be pi- oneers in enacting legislation that protects investigative journalism. Instead we are lagging behind. We should no longer be complacent on this issue," Casa said. Vice President Timmer- mans said that the Commis- sion was actively pursuing the issue and assessing how such legislation can be intro- duced. Brussels assessing how anti- SLAPP laws can be introduced across EU