Ian Borg ministry wants Mgarr road to get its Via Sagra

The transport ministry led by Ian Borg is requesting a planning permit for a government project that blurs the line with popular religiosity

Government religion: the transport ministry will apply for this road to have 14 commemorative slabs
Government religion: the transport ministry will apply for this road to have 14 commemorative slabs

The transport ministry led by Ian Borg is requesting a planning permit for a government project that blurs the line with popular religiosity: a ‘way of the cross’ along Triq ir-Ruħ in the form of 14 permanent tableaux.

The 14 commemorative slabs will be set in a hardstone frame along the existing rubble wall, with a statue of the Virgin Mary at a proposed roundabout at Mosta.

The proposal had already been proposed by the Mgarr council in 2011, but was shot down by the Planning Authority.

The ministry’s plan now has the council’s full support.

But the council’s original proposal had been refused because of its adverse impact on the neighbouring Ta’ Ħaġrat archaeological site, and because a landscaping plan for a road approved in 1997 had never been implemented by the same council.

But the refusal had been partly reversed by an appeals tribunal in 2014, in a decision which deemed the proposed structures excessive, while recommending lowering the height of the sacred images from 2m to 1.2m.

The tribunal also insisted on the incorporation of the original landscaping plan consisting of trees and planters, foreseen in 1997. But the decision was never implemented.

As proposed now, the tableaux will respect the height recommended in the tribunal’s decision. Plans also foresee the replacement of the existing concrete pavement with a “porphyry and lava pavement”.

In another development, plans by Infrastructure Malta foresee the erection of a new 7m-high monument dedicated to the Holy Mary, set on an ornate pedestal in the centre of the proposed roundabout. The monument was inserted in plans for the roundabout junction and bypass lanes at Triq id-Difiza Civili, in Mosta as proposed by the Mosta local council. Another monument, currently located on the roundabout and built in a more austere style, and dedicated to Maltese missionaries, will be relocated to the entrance of the Mount Saint Joseph retreat house. The project will result in the uprooting of 22 trees, including 2 protected Aleppo pine trees.