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- Fort Chambray development amendments
- “Please Don’t Spoil Gozo” - Readers Letter
- AD highlights sorry state of gateway to Gozo
- MEPA needs radical reform - AD
- AD disappointed at how MEPA is trying to undermine the work of the auditor’s office.
- Threat to Ramla l-Hamra Bay - Alternattiva Demokratika
- The government does not want to investigate MEPA
- Qala development - Comments requested
- Another environmental disaster for Gozo
- Gozitan elected as Secretary General of Alternattiva Demokratika
“It is indeed contradictory that on one hand the government is declaring that the environment is one of the pillars of its policies and on the other hand it is trying its best to make sure that a number of projects are quickly pushed through on the eve of the general election. A case in point is the further rape of Fort Chambray overlooking Mgarr harbour in Gozo,” said Alternattiva Demokratika general secretary and spokesperson for Gozo, Mr. Victor Galea.
“Alternattiva Demokratika - The Green Party deplores MEPA’s attitude of being strong with the weak and weak with the strong. This is what is happening vis a vis PA02024/07. It is not enough that MEPA has sanctioned the rape of Fort chambray so far but it is now also going against its own Development Briefs.”
The speculators are ignoring the architectural and historical context and, as has happened in a number of other projects in which land owned by the government has been transferred to a private enterprise without the issuing of tenders, are now treating the land as a cheap commodity. “In fact the structures of the fort have already suffered extensive damage. It is worth mentioning that this fort is the second most important one after the Citadella.” Mr Galea said.
Originally, Fort Chambray was to be small-scale residential units but now it is being exploited in the most obscene of ways. Notwithstanding the fact that expert studies commissioned by MEPA itself state that the building density on the site is exaggerated to the extent that Fort Chambray is being turned into a private estate.
Alternattiva Demokratika deplores the fact that application PA02024/07 will expand this monstrosity. This application asks MEPA to:
- Build more floors on the existing building
- Demolish the historic British Barracks which is an important part of the Fort.
- Erect seven-storey towers and five-storey hotel while demolishing the only historical military building left in this fortified city. This five-storey building will dominate the front bastions and thus completely lose the notion of a bastion itself.
“Alternattiva Demokratika condemns the fact that MEPA chooses to ignore the development briefs which it itself compiles. Having additional buildings on a site which includes high buildings with five storeys and seven storey high towers is simply unacceptable. Gozitans still care for our patrimony and Gozo deserves better” concluded Mr Ralph Cassar spokesperson for the environment.
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