The Planning Authority voted to approve an application to build a mega-block of apartment next to the Sannat cliffs, resulting in an uproar of critique among those objecting to the development.
PA/02087/21, an application by Mark Agius, was approved to build 73 flats and 60 garages in Sannat. This was met with disdain by activists however, who highlighted how the application is one of three in a cluster in Joseph Portelli’s plan to create 125 apartments along just 300 metres from the cliff’s edge.
Following the vote, shouts and chants of ‘you should be ashamed’ and ‘viva l-korruzjoni’ were projected at the board members. Critics have argued that slicing the development into three applications is an attempt by developers to bypass increased scrutiny that a larger project would undertake.
The two other applications have already been approved by the commission, despite being recommended for refusal by the PA’s case officer.
On his part, PN leader Bernard Grech questioned whether Robert Abela had anything to do with the permit for the Sannat development. Calling the approval of the permit an obscenity, he went on to ask whether the Prime Minister was in meetings which he influenced or was influenced by in recent days.
‘You are responsible for the environmental degradation of the country’ Grech said in his message. The Opposition leader said that although the PL pledged to invest into green lungs, it was acting in contradictory manners by approving such projects.
Grech said that another reason why Abela did not criticise the plans is due to the fact that h made thousands from direct orders in the PA and was happy receiving them. He then went on to explain how the PN’s trackless tram proposal among others would see to it that the environmental degradation does not continue whilst also keeping the economy sustainable.
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