Party organ obfuscates on China embassy in Pembroke

Reports suggesting that land earmarked for the siting of the Chinese government's new Malta embassy include the area in proximity to Labour-owned property in Pembroke, omitted to say it was a Nationalist government that changed a local plan for the siting of the mega-embassy.

Contrary to the perception given by a report in Nationalist weekly  newspaper il-mument, it was under the previous government that the local plan was changed to accommodate the construction of a massive Chinese embassy in Pembroke.

On Sunday, il-mument reported that Labour intended to hand over a parcel of land in Pembroke "which would be bigger than the one which would hosts the US embassy in Ta'Qali."

The report also suggested the land was in proximity to the dilapidated Australia Hall, which property has belonged to the Labour Party since 1979, when it granted land it owned in Marsa to the government of the time for the development of the Malta Shipbuilding corporation.

But il-mument failed to mention that the process to locate the Chinese embassy in Pembroke had started in January 2012 when amendments for the local plan were issued for public consultation and finalised on 15 November 2012 when the amendment was approved by the MEPA board.

The amendment deemed the site as being suitable for the development of an embassy, as it is located within extensive landscaped open areas and directly adjacent to a planned road that is to link Regional Road with Pembroke.

In the local plan approved by the government in 2006, the area now earmarked for an embassy had been previously allocated for the development of three-storey high maisonettes and flats on the condition that mature trees found in the area are safeguarded.

According to these plans the embassy will be constructed within development zones, as the area was already scheduled for development since the 1990s, even though it has remained undeveloped for the past two decades.

The local plan stipulated that a maximum of 304 new housing units could be built in this zone, as well as in another area of the same size in Pembroke, which was also allocated for housing, in the local plan.

In February 2007, MaltaToday reported that China had asked the government for a plot of land of up to 10,000 square metres in Pembroke - a prime site that has been earmarked for development by foreign powers since World War II.

The land earmarked in the local plan changes - roughly the size of the existing Pembroke cemetery - was significantly smaller than that envisaged in 2007, but still considerably larger than the present Chinese Embassy in St Julian's.