Your Letters

There’s nothing to hide

From: Angelo Xuereb, Chairman A X Holdings

I write in response to the letter from Front Kontra I-Golf, which was carried under the false headline 'Developer Angelo Xuereb continues to mislead the public'.

Front Kontra l-Golf has accused me of "hiding behind unpublished reports" when I speak about the proposed Verdala golf course. On the other hand, the Progressive Farmers Union (which forms part of Front Kontra l-Golf), writing on the same day in another newspaper, has suggested that I am going against the Planning Authority rules by promising to make this information public. With Front Kontra I-Golf, apparently, you can’t win.

The situation is this: we will not make public the EIA until the Planning Authority and the Environment Protection Department have studied and discussed the material with the various authorities. At the 'public hearing' stage of the procedure, we will hold an informative exhibition on the golf course project, during which this EIA will be available for inspection. The environmental impact assessment report is 3,000 pages long, and cannot be printed for distribution, for practical reasons that should be obvious. However a summary is available and anyone who is interested in obtaining a copy of this document may e-mail us at goIf@axholdings.com.mt giving us a postal address and name.

The EIA was carried out by Planning Authority-approved, independent consultants, over a 1 2-month period. The terms of reference covered around 95 issues, going into exhaustive detail about every possible aspect of the area: agriculture, ecology, hydrology, hydrogeology, landscape and visual amenity, traffic and transport, noise, air quality, water, drainage, and viticulture-In short. we have a vast, exhaustive and scientific report to back up our proposal for this golf course. Front Kontra I-Golf, on the other hand, has nothing but opinion and prejudice to back up 'its stand against golf in general, and the Verdala golf course in particular.

Clarifying the PBS situation

From: Louis Gatt, PBS

The article penned by Ray Abdilla under the heading ‘Louis Galea stands firm on PBS overhaul’ (Maltatoday 2811012001) contains a number of inaccuracies, which your readers should be made aware of.

The Task Force Report on the Restructuring of PBS Ltd has been made available in full to all members of the media who wished to peruse it and had your journalist consulted it, he would have found out that:

• The Task Force is made up of Mr Joe Vella Bonnici - Chairman, Fr Joe Borg and Mario Callus as members. This has even been reported on the front page of your newspaper following the publication of the Task Force Report. The persons mentioned in the article form the Board of Directors, but were not responsible for the drawing up of the Report.

• Nowhere in the Report is there a mention of number of employees which would be kept in employment following the restructuring and saying that "The task force recently declared that PBS could be run by 90 fulltime employees" is pure speculation and cannot but create more concern among the members of the staff.

• There is no evidence that members of the staff "expressed a lack of trust in the Task Force Report. In fact workers representatives are currently discussing with the Minister, the Chairman of PBS and the Task Force itself the implications of the Report.

• It is pure speculation that "Dr Galea wants to adopt a similar Kalaxlokk style early retirement scheme, where the over 558 are offered a lump sum". The details of the Early Retirement Scheme recommended in the Task Force Report are still being worked out and no concrete terms have as yet been drawn up or made known to any of the parties involved in the negotiations.

Getting a good meal

From: Mark Bugeja, Birzebbugia

After reading your report on a bad and expensive meal in Gozo, I could not help answering you as I have been in the trade for 27 years.

I help run a restaurant with my family in the south of Malta, and yes we do make a small profit but we also give value for money, or else customers would not return.

Since they will tell their families and friends if it was good or bad experience, we as caterers must keep on our toes just as other businesses do.

Now if people like yourself enter hole-in-the-wall restaurants and look at an expensive menu, a supernatural looking owner who does not look like he is up to the job, why don't you just leave the aforesaid hole and find a cheesecake shop?

I think I can speak for most caterers by saying that the best way to find out if a restaurant is up to scratch is by asking about its reputation.

Nothing to fear at St Luke’s

From: Emanuel Abela, Director of DOI

I refer to the article titled "Air conditioning blamed for increase in infections" (MaltaToday, Sunday 21 October 2001).

It is totally incorrect to speculate that staff and patients at St Luke's Hospital "had a lucky escape" from acquiring a Legionella infection earlier this month.

The detection of small traces of the microbe were part of an on-going surveillance undertaken jointly by the hospital's Engineering Department and the Infection Control Unit aimed precisely at preventing such a situation from materialising.

Since Legionella infections are, as correctly stated, commonly found in cooling towers, this pro-active testing ensures that, as happened in this case, they are detected and eliminated before they reach levels where they can actually be harmful.