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NEWS| Wednesday, 01 August 2007

BirdLife deny Lm5 million bid for Ta’ Cenc land

Matthew Vella

Ta’ Cenc developer Victor Borg yesterday claimed bird conservationist society BirdLife Malta had proposed to buy his land for Lm5 million, and offering not to oppose his prospective development in the area – a claim which BirdLife president Joe Mangion has categorically denied.
During a public meeting held yesterday evening at the local council between Borg and Gozitan residents and Sannat councillors, the developer said he had a letter from BirdLife offering to buy part of the land at Ta’ Cenc for Lm5 million, and offering not to oppose his development in the area.
Answering a question over free public access to the foreshore, Borg claimed BirdLife wanted to buy the land to close access to the conservation and heritage areas.
But he refused to present the letter to the people present in the meeting.
He later said he would have preferred having Wirt Ghawdex manage the conservation area, referring to the Gozitan heritage NGO which was the only organisation to applaud the proposed development at Ta’ Cenc.
Contacted yesterday evening, BirdLife president Joe Mangion denied categorically having ever placed a price on the organisation’s principles.
Mangion said the organisation had written to Victor Borg sometime in November 2003, requesting a meeting with the developer over the possibility of purchasing the land.
“We had a meeting in which we discussed the possibility of buying the area in a bid to safeguard the land for future generations. At no point, neither in writing nor by spoken word, did we either suggest a price, or that we would have stood silent over his development.”
Mangion declared that BirdLife would have never compromised its principles in the face of unacceptable development.
“Some time later, on a TV programme, Borg put a Lm6 million tag on his land but this was never mentioned to us during the meeting,” Mangion said.
Mangion said that at the time, BirdLife was mulling over the prospect of securing finance through their international contacts to be able to secure the land for its future conservation.



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