Three NGOs, namely – Din l-Art Helwa, Rota and the Gozo Cycling Club – said that they are against the unnecessary uprooting of trees in the Marsalforn to Victoria road widening project.

In a statement on Wednesday, they said that on the 11th of April a delegation from Din l-Art Helwa was invited to attend a meeting with Gozo and Planning Minister Clint Camilleri to discuss the Marsalforn road widening project.

The meeting was called in response to a DLH appeal to the Minister to reconsider this pointless and ruinous project which would entail uprooting over 200 trees in this beautiful and tranquil valley between Victoria and Marsalforn, devastating the delicate ecosystem in the process.

DLH said that in an interview Minister Camilleri gave to a journalist at the Malta Independent, he claimed that the main purpose for the road widening project was to introduce a cycling lane. However, Malta’s foremost cycling NGO Rota and the Gozo Cycling Club were not consulted before the plans were drawn up, the NGO said.

Rota had eventually labelled the project an “atrocity,” warning also that the road straightening “would result in more speed by motorised vehicles rather than serve the needs of active mobility solutions.”

DLH also said that during the April meeting Minister Camilleri had promised to forward both existing and proposed drawings of the project – which had been shown during the meeting by his architects – so that these could be carefully reviewed by DLH, Rota and the Gozo Cycling Club.

However, the NGOs stated that “despite several reminders, after more than three months these drawings were never sent.”

They stressed that, “the introduction of cycling lanes is always welcome; however, this cannot be used as an excuse for the road-widening project of a quiet valley and for indiscriminate uprooting of trees.”

Photo: DLH

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