PA’s dismissal of San Dimitri fireworks factory appeal puts residents at risk - Gharb council

The dismissal by the Planning Authority Tribunal, of an appeal made by the Gharb Local Council to suspend a planning permit for a fireworks factory, showed a lack of consideration for the choice of Gharb residents when they voted against such a factory in the area, the local council said today.

The Gharb Local Council's statement comes amid considerable controversy following the proposal for the building of a fireworks factory in the San Dimitri Area in Gharb, which was approved last November by the PA.

The Gozitan village’s residents, as well as the historical San Dimitri area, would be put “at risk on a daily basis” if the firework factory were built, the council stressed, as would farmers working their land and the many tourists visiting the surrounding areas. The environment surrounding San Dimitri Chapel would also be damaged, it said.

Criticising the PA’s “lack of sensibility” for not scheduling the San Dimitri area, the council said that this showed the Authority had only one aim, “that of permitting more factories filled with explosives and deaths to be constructed in the area”.

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It would use all possible measures to prevent the “damage and attempted suicide for Gharb’s residents who continuously live in fear during the incoming transportation of raw material towards the factories and also during the outgoing transportation of the final product towards its destination," the council emphasised.

“How many trips were made by sea under observation so that the fireworks could be brought from Malta”, it asked, questioning how many fireworks were being taken to Gharb and if they were catalogued in an inventory.

The council maintained that the authorities had been working on a two-way system to transport fireworks from Malta to Gharb because the unloading of final firework products from ship to land was no longer authorised to come into Gozo through Hondoq, limits of Qala - as had been done previously - following a request to the authorities for this practice to stop.

“The amendments the PA had carried out to fireworks factories policies had “made it easier for a person to request a permit for a fireworks factory in a village which has already suffered the consequences of unfair and wrong decisions,” the council said, “As a result of this the farmers are being forced to abandon their fields to avoid dangerous risks on their lives.  This is against the fundamental rights for anyone who has the right to enjoy his private property.”

It highlighted that the introduction of a bye-law which it had proposed had been refused, demonstrating the insensibility towards the council’s efforts to “safeguard the lives and tranquillity of the various sectors of people being affected by this scandalous development.”

The council appealed to the authorities to head the democratic manifestation of the wishes of Gharb’s residents, who it reiterated were being completely ignored.