A number of organisations have expressed their ”grave concerns at the Government’s announcement that a sports complex will be built in Pembroke.”

In a joint statement, the seven organisations said that ”according to reports in the media, the sports complex will host at least two football clubs and include at least one stadium with a capacity of upwards of 2,000 spectators. This will be built on a green area opposite a residential zone, in an environmentally sensitive area very close to the Natura 2000 Park in Pembroke.”

The added that residents in Pembroke are also ”gravely concerned” about this new development, ”which adds to a growing list of enormous projects engulfing the locality – the db City Centre project, Villa Rosa, and the Chinese Embassy. Back in 2017, we joined Pembroke residents in the fight against the development of a private school on this green area. The battle was won through the joint pressure of residents, the Pembroke Local Council at the time, and other NGOs.”

They pointed out that this project also comes in the wake of Government signalling its intention to change the Local Plans to allow intense commercialisation of sports facilities across Malta and Gozo.

”Such a change would have a detrimental effect on the locality of Pembroke, which already hosts three football clubs, a number of padel complexes, and other sports facilities, and which would now be able to expand into large commercial spaces that have no benefit to residents or the community,” the organisations said.

They also noted that there are several environmental and social objections that the organisations would like to raise about the proposed sports complex.

This is an environmentally sensitive area overlooking the Natura 2000 Park in Pembroke, they said. ”A development of this scale will negatively impact the park through light, noise, and traffic pollution.”

Moreover, they said that ”Pembroke residents were not consulted on this project, especially in the context of several large developments that are already having an adverse impact on the locality, its quality of life, and its surrounding environment. For example, this project will bring even more cars and traffic to a locality that is already heavily congested.”

The organisations also highlighted the fact that in 2012, Valletta FC were awarded a sizeable piece of land in Hal Farrug to develop a sports village. ”Despite this, they are now being given yet another sizeable piece of public land to develop another sports complex.”

The organisations called on the Government to ”withdraw this proposal immediately. Although this green area is technically within the development zone, it is in fact natural land and an essential public open space.”

They concluded by saying that the Government ”must incorporate it within the Natura 2000 park and assure Pembroke residents that no such development will take place. We must not turn Pembroke into a dumping ground for all sorts of intense and unsustainable commercial activities that will lead to it becoming an extension of Paceville.”

The organisations encouraged the public to sign the petition organised by the residents on this issue: https://parlament.mt/en/petition?id=326

The organisations are:

BirdLife Malta

Din l-Art Helwa

Flimkien ghal Ambjent Ahjar

Ghawdix

Moviment Graffitti

Nature Trust Malta

Ramblers Association Malta.

Photo: Moviment Graffitti

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