New ODZ fireworks factory application crops up in Mellieha
James Debono
A fireworks factory is being proposed outside the development zones in Tal-Ghajn in Mellieha, only a year after MEPA issued an enforcement order against seven illegal rooms and “the use of fireworks without a permit” on the same site.
The proposed factory, located in the vicinity of Anchor Bay (site of Popeye’s Village), lies far away from residential areas, thus respecting safety laws prohibiting fireworks factories located less than 150 metres from areas inhabited by more than 100 people.
But the application seeks to develop virgin land outside development schemes in an agricultural area tilled by farmers.
The application was presented by the Ghaqda Nar Maria Bambina, whose secretary Joe Aquilina insists that Mellieha needs a fireworks factory because it is one of the few localities without such a facility.
According to Aquilina, fireworks used during the Mellieha feast are bought from other localities.
When asked about the enforcement order issued in 2009 against the illegal use of fireworks, Aquilina – who was not involved in the association at the time – claimed that he was under the impression that MEPA had issued the enforcement because the previous committee had not managed to raise the €13,000 required to present the application.
“We have now raised the necessary funds and we hope that Mellieha will have its own factory.”
But the application presented to MEPA acknowledges that the site has already been used for the production of fireworks despite the absence of a MEPA permit.
In fact the application seeks to “sanction the manufacture of fireworks within agricultural premises” by “re-locating this practice” to an even greater adjacent site in a way that “today’s standards” are respected.
In MEPA jargon the word ‘sanction’ is an euphemism for ‘legalising buildings or activities lacking a permit’.
The application comes in the wake of the Planning Directorate’s strong stance against the development of ODZ fireworks factories in Rabat and Munxar Gozo.
A case officer report recommending the refusal of a fireworks factory in Rabat claimed that the development of a fireworks factory in the countryside would pose a risk to farmers working on adjacent land.
The report invokes the Structure Plan’s policy, according to which development that constitutes “bad neighbourliness”, or which has adverse effects on adjacent properties, should be rejected.
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