Residents ask for urgent Corinthia debate in Parliament's environment committee

A number of NGOs, three local councils and seven residents' groups have requested an urgent debate on the Corinthia development on the peninsula in St George's Bay.

The activists wrote to Labour MP Alex Muscat, who chairs the Environment and Development Planning Committee in Parliament, to discuss the imminent concession of title, land, and environmental rights to the International Hotel Investments (IHI).

Their concerns include repercussions on the public and natural environment, especially in terms of seabed reclamation which, they said, "would effectively render the obtainment of a planning permission a fait accompli".

The people who signed the letter, quoted the Aarhus Convention, that underscores the right to information and public participation in planning and environmental matters. "It is an established principle that early public participation, when all options are still open, is a requisite when decisions of such magnitude are being made," they said.

The communities said that they wanted to make sure that all the necessary studies behind such a massive development were properly conducted.

The request was made by the Pembroke, Swieqi and St Julian's local councils, the NGOs Din l-Art Ħelwa, Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar, Friends of the Earth Malta, Moviment Graffitti, BirdLife Malta, Żminijietna – Voice of the Left and the Ramblers Association, and the residents' groups of Pembroke, St Julians, Tal-Ibragg, St Andrews, Sliema, Gharghur and Bahar ic-Caghaq.