Far-right party Azzjoni Nazzjonali (AN) is proposing that development applications about land which is outside the development zone (ODZ) should not be decided by Malta Environment and Planning Authority (MEPA) board but should be taken in front of the House of Representatives.
Asked by MaltaToday on the party’s position on ODZ developments, AN deputy leader Angelo Xuereb, the construction magnate who turned politician in the past few months, told a press conference at the party’s headquarters in Sliema yesterday: “Government should stop using the MEPA Board as a smokescreen to hide its own decisions. Planning decisions on these projects should be taken in the open.”
He said that in the Smart City project, the Prime Minister went to Dubai to launch the project in September last year “without even considering whether a permit had been issued for the project or not.”
Xuereb is the construction magnate who for ten years battled indefatigably with the Planning Authority, its successor MEPA, and the civil society coalition under the “Front Kontra l-Golf Kors” banner for the construction of a golf course on arable land underneath the Verdala Hotel.
Speaking during an interview with MaltaToday on 10 July 2005, Xuereb did not shy away from seeking government’s intervention that a golf course would eventually be allowed to be developed on the island.
“When I purchased the Verdala Hotel, I knew that the structure plan had already outlined Rabat as the best place to host a golf course.
“The government had already issued a tender three times, and four previous studies had confirmed this was the best place.
“With government and MIMCOL encouraging the project, I reckoned that if I purchased the hotel, an application for a golf course would have certainly passed through. And that’s what I did in 1994,” Xuereb said candidly.
The planning application for the development of the Verdala golf course was eventually rejected by the MEPA Board following a lengthy meeting on 10 September 2004.
In its recommendation to the Board, the Environmental Planning Directorate had said that the planning of the golf course went against the Structure Plan Policy.
The Directorate’s report had said that the major negative impact of the proposed golf course is the displacement of farmers from the land, which their families have worked for generation.

czahra@mediatoday.com.mt