ODZ location for St Paul’s Bay primary school confirmed

The development is set to take place on 7,900 square metre site located outside development boundaries in areas designated as buffer zone for a nearby Natura 2000 site.

The area earmarked for development
The area earmarked for development

The Foundation for Tomorrow Schools has formally applied to build a new school on land in Tal-Wileg in St Paul’s Bay, which had been previously earmarked for the expansion of the nearby Salini Park.

The application was presented to the Malta Environment and Planning Authority on Tuesday.

The development is set to take place on 7,900 square metre site located outside development boundaries in areas designated as buffer zone for a nearby Natura 2000 site.

The development is set to include car-parking facilities, a play area, a badminton pitch and a volleyball pitch. Entrance to the new school will be from Triq JF Kennedy. 

The school will be located in an area close to the Salini park, identified by the previous administration as a 7,000 square metre extension to the national park opened in 2008.  

An application to extend the park, which was already on the MEPA board’s agenda, was dropped in February 2014. The new school is required because the current one is considered too small for St Paul Bay’s growing population. 

Since 2005, the population in St Paul’s Bay has grown by 23%, making the locality the third most populated in Malta, behind only Birkirkara and Mosta. 

Last year a government spokesperson had told MaltaToday that the decision to locate the school in this area was taken after “various options” were considered. 

It is not clear whether the government has ever considered using a plot of land previously belonging to GO Plc, which has been earmarked for a car park.

On that occasion the government also quelled speculation that it intends to sell the present school, set in an idyllic location on the coastline. 

According to a spokesperson, the development of the new school is intended to be “an additional school to the existing one”.

Residents who own houses opposite the park had collected a petition against the development. They also warned that continuous exposure to electro-magnetic fields from Enemalta’s electricity distribution centre could pose a danger to school children. 

But according to a government spokesperson, the Foundation for Tomorrow’s Schools (FTS) has already assessed the impact of possible EMF exposures from the distribution centre located in the area with the results showing they are “below the maximum criteria”. 

The present school in St Paul’s Bay Primary School was inaugurated in 1956 to meet the educational needs of the children of a small fishing settlement and its satellite hamlets. 

The school is now catering for the ever-sprawling settlements of St Paul’s Bay, Bugibba and Qawra. 

What was once a summer seaside resort has now changed into a popular residential area attracting people from other places all over the island. With the influx of foreign people settling in Malta, St Paul’s Bay’s primary has attracted a marked proportion of students of a foreign origin. 

Today the school’s population has reached the 1100 mark, with around 60% of students hailing from other countries. The intake of students now contains marked characteristic of cultural, religious and social diversity. 

In recent years two ODZ schools were constructed: a 22,830 sq. m. facility at Ta’ Zokrija (Mosta), and another school with a site area of 15,940 sq. m. at Ta’ Karwija (Kirkop). The Dominican order has also applied to relocate St Albert College to a massive 77,000 square meter ODZ area in Ghaxaq, which has been designated for school development in the local plan.