Nature park boundaries changed by government

Direct any questions on nature park to OPM, MEPA spokesperson tells MaltaToday

It was the government and not the Malta Environment and Planning Authority (MEPA) which drew the boundaries of the nature park being proposed in Marsaskala in the vicinity of the proposed ODZ campus, MaltaToday has learned.

A much larger 'national park', which included the zone earmarked for the American University of Malta and other land parcels, had already been approved in the local plan of 2006. 

Although the former government never implemented the policy enacting the national park, the designation of the Zonqor area as one, remains legally binding.

This means that the approved national  park cannot be reduced in size in the absence of an amendment to the local plan.

But a downscaled version of the park which not only omits the land earmarked for the ODZ campus but awkwardly skirts around various other land parcels, was announced last month along with the proposed ODZ development proposed for Zonqor point. 

Last week MaltaToday asked MEPA to reveal which entity was responsible for establishing the new boundaries of the park. 

Instead of answering the questions sent by this newspaper a spokesperson for MEPA yesterday invited MaltaToday to “direct any questions” on the proposed nature park to the Office of the Prime Minister.

Questions sent by this newspaper to the Office of the Prime Minister yesterday remained unanswered till the time of going to print.

Apart from the site identified for the university, the new site map of the nature park is smaller and does not include several land parcels, which were included in map (SM1) of the approved local plan. 

This includes a corridor of land between the proposed new university and the nature park and another corridor between Triq Ghaxqet l-Ghajn and the downsized park. 

MaltaToday also asked MEPA to publish the criteria used to exclude land from the park approved in 2006.

MEPA has so far not announced any revision of the local plan to downsize the proposed park. MEPA is legally obliged to carry out a public consultation before changing any part of a local plan.