Updated | PL demands probe into St Julian’s meeting to oppose Paceville masterplan

The Labour Party has requested the Department for Local Government to nullify a St Julian’s local council meeting, in which it was decided that the council will oppose the proposed Paceville masterplan.

The decision came at the end of a heated meeting on Thursday, in which the Labour Party’s councilors stormed out in protest before the vote on the motion was taken.

St Julian’s deputy mayor Albert Buttigieg told MaltaToday that the councilors left the room when he started pressing them on whether they agree or not with the land reclamation and expropriation of people’s houses that has been proposed in the masterplan.

However, PL councillor Adrian Ellul said that the true reason they left was because their request for their response to the motion to be included in its entirety in the minutes had been rejected. When contacted by MaltaToday, PL councilor and minority leader Martin Sultana refused to disclose the PL councillors’ position on land reclamation and expropriation, arguing that it will be made public in the media on Friday.

The Councillors’ Section of the Labour Party accused St Julian’s mayor Guido Dalli and the other Nationalist councillors of acting anti-democratically when they refused to include the response of Labour councillors to the motion in the minutes.

“The PL councillors didn’t submit a counter-motion, but merely gave their reasons why they didn’t agree with the original motion. Therefore, the vote should have been taken in favour or against the motion and not whether the PL councillors’ arguments should have been included in the minutes or not. This means that a vote on the proper motion was never taken, which goes against the spit of the law.”

The final motion was therefore endorsed by Guido Dalli, Albert Buttigieg, and PN councilors Clayton Luke Mula, Rita Dimech Portelli, Clayton Tanti Gregoracy and Edgar Montanaro.

In it, they warned that it would be illegal for government to expropriate private property with the intention of selling it to a private company.

“The masterplan has completely ignored the right of citizens to their properties, many of which they had acquired after much sacrifice.”

The councillors also warned that the masterplan breaches the public domain law – which prohibits development within the first 15 metres of the coastline – and that its definition of low-rise buildings as those 15 storeys or lower goes against Maltese law, which defines them as those 10 storeys or lower.

Moreover, the councillors argued that the project – which is expected to attract an extra 18,000 people to Paceville a day – will create traffic, infrastructure and waste management problems in St Julian’s and the surrounding areas.

It also said that the proposed land reclamation will harm the environment, and that the construction of 22 towers will ruin the skyline and cast shadow on zones such as St George’s Bay.

“While we agree that Paceville requires a masterplan, this must be a sustainable one that takes residents’ interests into account,” the motion reads. “It should be preceded by widespread consultation with everyone who will be impacted, including local councils, administrative councils, shop owners and residents.”