Rationalisation returns to haunt Attard residents

Alternattiva Demokratika is highlighting the approval of a five-storey development on a plot of land in Tal-Mirakli in Attard which was included in the development zones in the notorious extension enacted by the Nationalist government in 2006.

That rationalisation exercise included 77 similar plots of land which were previously outside development zones. The Tal-Mirakli area was previously part of a green belt separating Attard from Mosta.

The planning permit was anonymously approved by the Environment Planning Commission on 5 July, two months after a development application was presented by developer David Psaila, who is also the architect of the project.

The permit was approved, as it conforms both to the local plan and falls within development zones.

The approved development will include six maisonettes, nine flats and four penthouses, and will have parking spaces for 24 cars.

The site is located on a new street just off Triq Santa Katerina and falls within areas which were part of the 2006 Scheme Rationalisation.

The specific area was also designated for terraced houses in the Central Local Plan, with the height limitation of three floors plus semi-basement. Penthouses are normally allowed on any three-storey development.

The site presently consists of vacant agricultural land.

The newly elected Labour government retained the development zones approved in 2006. The Labour Party had opposed the rationalisation process, and Labour's former representative on the MEPA board, Roderick Galdes, repeatedly voted against the inclusion of similar plots of land in development schemes.

But Labour has made no commitment to reverse the extension of building zones carried out in 2006 on those plots of land where MEPA has yet to issue building permits.