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Karl Schembri
Children’s Commissioner Sonia Camilleri has intervened in the Munxar playing field saga, calling on the mayor to stick to the original plans and build a whole playing field as opposed to the half project he embarked upon in cahoots with a private individual who was given the rest of the field.
“I am of the opinion that it would be extremely appropriate that the children and families of Munxar get the playing field project in the best possible way,” Camilleri said. “The best way to do this is evidently by sticking to the first plan approved by MEPA in 2001.” Camilleri added that after examining the original plans and the half project pushed by mayor Joseph Sultana, she believed that all the land marked in Munxar for a playing field should be used for that purpose.
The playing field, half of which was granted by the council to a certain Angelo Debrincat, who claims he’s a farmer, has been fuelling much local feuding over the years in the tiny village of Munxar, Gozo.
The controversy was sparked after the mayor had reached a dubious agreement with Debrincat to keep half the area meant to be turned into a playing field for his personal use – a decision fiercely contested by the residents as well as PN deputy Mayor Mark Bajada and Labour councillor Robert Mallia.
Bajada said all the Munxar residents knew that Debrincat had no title on the land in question and never made any legal claims on it.
“It’s clear (mayor) Sultana is only working in the interest of Debrincat,” Bajada had claimed. “All Munxar knows this.”
Since 2001, the mayor has been changing the original plans as approved by Munxar residents to develop an area land known as Ta’ Marziena into a playing field. Debrincat has since that year been paying a meagre Lm1.25 to the Joint Office to use the land for farming.
To prove that he can claim title to the land in question, Debrincat sent his receipts since 2001 in a legal letter to the council last year, but the councillors opposing the plans say the move towards halving the project started precisely in the same year since he started paying.
The Children’s Commissioner asked the mayor to revise his plans and give Debrincat an alternative field so that Munxar children could get a full playing field, as promised for years.
According to the mayor, the agreement was reached “in order to avoid litigation between the farmer and the council” and the agreement granting Debrincat the right to use exclusively public land was approved by the director of local government, Natalino Attard.
kschembri@mediatoday.com.mt
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