NEWS | Wednesday, 18 March 2009

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Julia Farrugia
Labour MP Roderick Galdes said he would be filing for libel against Nationalist TV station Net TV.
The PL’s representative on the MEPA board was recently in the news for voting in favour of a 40-apartment block by developer Charles Polidano in Balzan. Galdes accused Net TV of alleging he voted in favour of “an application for the demolition of a historical home dating back to the Grand Master de Rohan era.”
Galdes also said it was not true he failed to answer questions sent to him by Net journalists via email. “I answered these questions by email two hours before the news bulletin. But Net TV did not correct their story.”
Galdes said his vote in favour of the project adhered to a previous decision of the Development Control Commission in 2007 – the same DCC that resigned en bloc after being reprimanded by the MEPA ombudsman for approving Polidano’s supermarket in Safi.
The DCC had accepted the Balzan application in principle, after imposing a number of conditions. Galdes said MEPA’s own directorate noted that the reasons cited for refusing the project, such as the preservation of the traditional garden, had been resolved in the amended plans.
His was the sole vote in favour of the project, which was rejected by the MEPA board on the grounds that it would have resulted in overdevelopment of Balzan’s open spaces. “I based my decision on technical considerations… I assume full responsibility for my decision,” Galdes said.
The Balzan council had not objected to the project in 2006, when it told MEPA that Polidano Bros had guaranteed the dovecote (barumbara) and the gardens would not be affected by the development.

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