Attard residents write to Prime Minister over Central Link Project concerns

A group of 432 individuals have signed a letter to Prime Minister Joseph Muscat calling on him to intervene and have the government reconsider plans to go through with the proposed Central Link Project.

The €55 million project aims to reduce travel time in the area by half by creating up to 7.4km of new lanes.

The project is expected to take around two years to complete and should improve the route between the Mriehel bypass in the direction of Attard, going up until the Saqajja hill roundabout.

The letter, penned by the Attard Residents Environment Network (AREN), calls on the Muscat to intervene and stop the project, arguing that it would affect “various arable lands in Attard” as well as result in the loss of virgin land outside the development zone.

Moreover, the residents said that the project would “adversely affect the residents’ quality of life since the particular area in question will from will from a peaceful green area be abruptly transformed into a busy arterial road exposing residents to incessant noise and traffic problems”.

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Furthermore, they said the project would result in a the loss of several parking spaces; the demolishing of a number of farms, greenhouses and water reservoirs; high noise levels as well as the removal of a private parking areas.

Carbon Monoxide emissions will negative impact residents, while a number of protected trees and fruit trees would also have to be uprooted, the residents said.

Finally, AREN said that the project would also mean that several farmers “who earn their daily living from their fields will incur a substantial loss of income”.

“We plea for your immediate intervention to save our environment and safeguard our public health, which will be undoubtedly at stake should this project materialise,” reads the letter.

“In our opinion, other options should be considered such as building an underground tunnel rather than running more arable land and cauing a drastic devaluation of our properties.”

They stressed that a tunnel would remove “all the noise pollution”, remove “the issue of eating up more virgin land” and would allow the possibility of “interconnecting with future tunnels”, leading to smaller environmental impact.

“We sincerely hope that the government re-considers such decision and this primarily to conserve and protect our environment before further irreparable damage is done,” the residents said.

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