Hunters favour Busbesija shooting range

FKNK CEO Lino Farrugia says shooting range ‘will not disturb Jesuit’s retreat home’

A rendition of the proposed shooting range by U Group Malta, as found on their website.
A rendition of the proposed shooting range by U Group Malta, as found on their website.

Hunting federation FKNK has come out in favour of the shooting range being proposed at Busbesija, Mosta, claiming that it won’t create any disturbance to the Jesuit’s retreat home.

The shooting range is at the centre of a controversy because of its siting in the proximity of the Mount St Joseph retreat home run by the Jesuit order, who are mounting a campaign against the proposal.

A planning application by the Russian-owned U Group had already been filed with MEPA before the Labour government issued an expression of interest for the site in question.

“The FKNK, many of whose members also practice various target shooting disciplines, such as clay-pigeon shooting, supports the setting up of the much awaited and promised target shooting range of international standard planned for Tal-Busbesija’,” FKNK CEO Lino Farrugia said.

“In the FKNK's opinion, the range will not disturb the retreat house that is run by the Jesuits in any negative manner.”

The Busbesija anti-aircraft battery, in the Mosta countryside, was one of four abandoned government properties the newly-elected administration issued for an expression of interest.

The others were the Mtarfa isolation hospital, now earmarked for a home for the elderly run by Malta Health Care Caterers; Marfa Palace in Marfa, now to be run as a boutique hotel by Exclusivity Malta; and Strickland House on the outskirts of Mgarr, to be run by Frott Artna Agritourism Consortium for agritourism.

Seven proposals were submitted for the Busbesija site and Strickland House, six for Marfa Palace and three for the hospital, in October 2013. Ten proposals were then submitted in July and evaluated by an adjudicating committee, which issued their recommendations.

While the shooting range’s screening process is still ‘stuck’ in the MEPA pipeline, a planning policy on shooting ranges is yet to be drawn up. The final draft of a “supplementary planning guidance for shooting ranges” was published by MEPA in October 2006, but it has not translated into actual policy. In February 2014, MEPA opened a new public consultation on a policy and design guidance document on shooting ranges.

The 2006 draft policy states that shooting ranges “should not be located close to hospitals, schools, rural settlements or residential areas, homes for retired or disabled due to acoustic nuisances generated.”