Godfrey Farrugia raps environment authority for inaction on Mriehel Towers

Partit Demokratiku MP Godfrey Farrugia took the Environment and Resources Authority (ERA) to task for failing to appeal against the proposed Mriehel Towers project that was approved last year.

The project, the brainchild of the Tumas and Gasan development groups, will consist of four high-rise cylindrical blocks that will be used as offices for financial services. The Planning Authority approved the project on the same day as it approved the construction of a skyscraper at Qui Si Sana, Sliema, and it was the latter project that dominated the media spotlight.

Speaking in Parliament during a debate on ERA’s budget, Farrugia said that ERA’s failure to appeal the Mriehel Towers project was a “near-suicidal” decision in its first year of inexistence.

He warned that the project will leave a major and irreparable stain on Malta’s landscape and that it will damage the skyline between Mdina and Valletta.

He also noted that Mriehel was approved by stealth as a high-rise zone in the government’s policy regulating tall buildings – included after the public consultation period had closed.

“Green NGOs instantly opened a court case that they eventually lost and, although ERA objected against the PA, it never appealed this project in front of the Environment and Planning Tribunal,” he said. “ERA should never bow its head in front of giants who think that Malta belongs solely to them.”

Godfrey and Marlene Farrugia have warned of the risks of over-development

Marlene Farrugia: ‘We don’t want Malta to be another Dubai’

Fellow PD MP Marlene Farrugia once again tore into the government’s “cosmopolitan” devleopment vision for Malta, instead advocating a “Malta-politan vision”.

“We don’t want to become another Dubai or Qatar who had to build in the desert,” she said. “Malta is small, delicate and fragile and we must safeguard it. If we truly want to live in a seven star country, then the environment must start complementing development. What would be the point of having seven star development full of glitz and glammer but with shoddy infrastructure at its doorstep?”

She accused the Labour government of running a “banana republic” by setting up ERA to give off the perception that is committed to safeguarding the environment, but then not allowing the authority to object to large projects that were the result of pre-electoral backroom deals.

Environment minister Jose Herrera appealed against 'extremist, single issue politics'

Environment minister: ‘Sometimes we feel a false sense of nostalgia’

Environment minister Jose Herrera used his speech to appeal against “political extremism” on the environment, arguing that development cannot stop in its tracks.

“If we lived in an ideal world then the environment will not be touched at all, but were people really living better lives in the days of the Order of St John or in the 1950s?” he questioned. “Sometimes, we feel a false sense of nostalgia about the past.”
Herrera said that the Maltese people advocate a “mainstream” style of politics, instead of a radical one that is based on single issues.

“In their rush to boost the economy and improve the lives of people, successive governments have abused of the environment,” he admitted. “The time has come to take stock of our mistakes, show more sensitivity to the environment, and adopt a more sustainable approach.”