The Gharb and San Lawrenz Local Councils in conjunction with the respective residents, Tenants Association of ta’ Dbiegi Crafts village, Kempinski San Lawrenz Hotel, Gozo NGOs, and others will be organizing a protest against the proposed Mushroom factory in front of Ta’ Dbiegi Crafts Village tomorrow, Thursday the 3rd of September, at 5.00pm.

Transport will be provided from the ferry terminal for the 3.45 ferry leaving from Cirkewwa for those Maltese residents who do not want to cross with their car. Anyone is interested in using this transport may telephone 21560556 to reserve a seat.

The Gharb Local Council has written to all Gharb residents, outlining the full details of the planning application as follows:

Two years ago, an application was submitted to build a mushroom factory at Ta’ Dbiegi, disguising the application by mentioning Ta’ Dbiegi KERCEM and not GHARB, to be built outside the development zone with a footprint of 15,000 square meters of agricultural land, this has raised the hackles of the Gharb Local Council and residents.

However, the Gharb Local Council back in November 2008 objected on the grounds that this project would negatively affect the area. This objection has reached the MEPA office in time and the council has now become a registered objector, this can be be proven and documented. This proposed factory will destroy a large chunk of the greenery and will be adjacent to a residential area, the local crafts village and the nearby five-star hotel with out leaving any buffer zone at all.

The project will involve the manufacture of the mushroom substrate on site to minimize the running costs for the benefit of the applicant’s business and would need 22 tons of chicken manure and 44 tons of straw a week, which all the chicken farms of Gozo together will only be able to produce enough for one months production while the other 11 months of the year it will have to be delivered from Malta leaving the smell along the streets of Malta and Gozo including the Gozo Channel Ferries.

This would create an offensive smell that would disturb everyone around the factory, create sound pollution and will excacerbate current transport problems. The access to the site would be through the crafts village, which would negatively affect the site’s tourism industry.

All this was confirmed by the planning authority’s Natural Heritage Panel:

“These odors would have a negative effect on the nearby tourist-oriented Ta’ Dbiegi Crafts Village, residential properties and the Kempinski Hotel. The total elimination of these risks is totally impossible. This project would have a major impact on the environment because it would take up a large amount of agricultural land including the excavation of blue clay within an area of agricultural value identified in the Gozo and Comino local plan.”

Many weeks ago, the Gharb Local Council met with the residents, the tenants of the Crafts Village, Kempinski Hotel representatives and interested organisations to set up the way forward to challenge MEPA and the developers. The Council calls all interested parties to join and not making from this issue a personal gaining for many reasons especially making this a political personal issue.

There is a place for all and the Gharb Local Council is seeking assistance from the San Lawrenz Local Council as this proposed development will also affect the San Lawrenz Locality.