A casting vote by Attard’s Nationalist mayor Norbert Pace shot down the possibility for the local council to challenge a local plan enacted without the consultation required by law – and which paved the way for development next to Villa Bologna, the former residence of Lord Gerald Strickland.
Just days before the general election, Pace used his casting vote to defeat a motion by Alternattiva Demokratika councillor Ralph Cassar, calling on the council to challenge the Central Malta Local Plan in a law court.
The CMLP includes changes which had not been in the draft local plan issued for public consultation, and which now pave the way for the controversial development next to Villa Bologna. Effectively it proposes three-storey development next to Villa Bologna in an area previously designated as a green area.
Cassar’s motion was also seconded by Labour councillor John Bonnici and backed by the two MLP councillors in the council. The motion noted that the CMLP had been approved without consultation as required by the law.
It also noted that the development in Lorenzo Manchè street would alter the character of this area by covering the walls surrounding the villa and that the inclusion of development in formerly ODZ areas would create more pressure on the locality’s infrastructure.
AD spokesperson Carmel Cacopardo, a former audit office employee at MEPA, is representing the owners of Villa Bologna as their architect in representations against development proposals to include part of Lorenzo Manchè street for development when it was previously a designated green area.
No such development proposals had been included in the draft plan for the locality when this was published in 2001.
By the end of this month, the European Commission is expected to decide whether to issue the Maltese government with a final warning on changing local plans without conducting an environmental impact assessment.

jdebono@mediatoday.com.mt