149 farmers sign petition against Burmarrad road development

Farmers from Burmarrad have presented a 149-signature strong petition against a proposed road which passes directly from agricultural land known is Il-Wileg in Burmarrad.

The proposal is to shift an existing road which splits the Kennedy Grove recreational park to an agricultural area which hosts a number of protected trees and provides a livelihood to a number of full time farmers who own most of the land.

In a report attached to the petition, biologist Carmel Hili documents the presence of the legally protected white poplar trees (sigar  tal-luq). Another rare plant found in the area is the Denb iz-Ziemel (branched horse tail) which grows on marshlands and is renowned for its medical properties. Farmers are concerned that the new road would flood their fields which receive an abundance of water from other localities. The land includes vine and  olive cultivations. It is also one of the few places where artichokes are grown.  The land is particularly fertile due to  the fact that ground water  is found  less than 2 metres under the soil.

The petition was presented by Hili, who represents the Labour Party representative on the Burmarrad administrative council, during an information meeting organised by MEPA yesterday. The road development in Burmarrad forms part of a larger project to transform the coast road from its current two lanes to a full blown four lane motor way. Transport Malta justifies the project on the basis of safety consideration, citing statistics showing that between 2002 and 2008 more than 300 accidents, six of which were fatal occurred in the 7km stretch of coast road.

Both MEPA and Transport Malta insist that a decision on the proposed road will only be taken following full public consultation and environmental studies which are still at an initial stage. MEPA is currently drafting the terms of reference for an Environment Impact Study on the project.

During yesterday’s meeting architect Robert Zerafa confirmed that TM is willing to consider alternatives. proposed by the public but justified the shifting of the Kennedy Grove road arguing that this was splitting the recreational park and its curve posed safety problems.  But TM did not  produce any statistics on the number of accidents which have occurred on this  part of the road.