David Darmanin The St Julian’s Local Council Monday withdrew a proposal to develop a car park in Balluta Square - less than 24 hours after a MaltaToday story reported a public consultation meeting wherein residents unanimously and fiercely shot down the idea.
The council is now eyeing Spinola Bay (Tiguglio car park) and the area opposite the Institute of Tourism Studies (‘Wesghet San Gorg’) as possible alternative sites for the rejected Balluta proposal.
“If the people of St Julian’s did not accept the car park where we proposed it, the Local Council must respect the views of residents, so we are now looking at these other areas as an alternative,” Mayor Peter Bonello confirmed yesterday.
He added that during the next council meeting, he will be pushing for “the setting up of a committee made up of Balluta residents, so that we together seek ways of improving the area.”
Prominent lawyers Franco Vassallo and Austin Sammut, who during last Friday’s consultation meeting were very vociferous in their opposition to the original Balluta proposal, have now both expressed their satisfaction at the council’s decision to keep their hands off Balluta.
“But is it really all over?” Vassallo asks. “That the Local Council has decided to respect the views of residents is definitely a positive step in the right direction. But the council has another pending application with MEPA to demolish the public lavatories in Balluta, where the area district office is. The proposal is for a ‘green urban public transport terminus’, which already sounds strange as we know that in today’s environment, when we use the word ‘green’– it means we want to sell something.”
The architect behind this application is again Stephen Farrugia – who represented the proposal for the Balluta Car Park and who, over the past years, was entrusted with a series of consultancy projects for Polidano Group: the owners of Le Meridien St Julian’s located in Balluta itself.
Farrugia was formerly the director of planning at MEPA.
Vassallo seems to be the only registered objector to the application. “The reason why I am objecting is obvious,” he said. “I had queried whether it was suspiciously convenient for other commercial entities next door to have their own loading and unloading bay in the area. Do I have a guarantee that this ‘green public transport terminus’ is not going to be used by commercial entities? In that case, public land would be used for private purposes...”
Vassallo has written to the Lands Department, querying whether there are commercial interests in the local council project. No reply has been forthcoming since “the department said it would not like to comment prior to the approval of the permit”.
Should private concerns be direct beneficiaries of such a development, Vassallo says it would only make sense for them to pay adequate compensation. Such would include fees for use of public land, for the maintenance of the area, for the cost of the development itself as well as for the pollution caused by the use of such space.
“If you are calling a project ‘green’, then green is what is should really be,” he said.
On his part, Austin Sammut said the local council has been “very mature for respecting the views of residents – it deserves a lot of credit for this.”
He said that the Tigullio area, which he had also suggested as an alternative, would be ideal – “although if there are going to be excavations, you never know what lies underneath”.
Although he no longer lives in Balluta, Sammut grew up in the area and together with his relatives, he is now a leaseholder of the same property he grew up in, which is still tenanted by his elderly mother.
Sammut said he had been approached by the newly formed residents’ association to give legal advice to the front opposing the Balluta car park.
“The association is headed by a number of people whom I’ve known all my life. Without mentioning names, there were also a few politicians involved in the lobby against the project – and they came from both sides, although predominantly from the party in opposition.”
Sammut has also been vocal about his concerns with the proposal in his weekly newspaper column.
He does not seem to be entirely convinced with the mayor’s idea to set up a local council committee made up of Balluta residents.
“I don’t think we should have too many associations, but I am all in favour of having the residents’ association working closely with the council,” he said. “You can extend and expand Balluta as much as you like, but no, I’m not in favour of having some sort of subcommittee within the council.”
Any comments?
If you wish your comments to be published in our Letters pages please click button below. Please write a contact number and a postal address where you may be contacted.
Download front page in pdf file format
All the interviews from Reporter on MaltaToday's YouTube channel.
