While welcoming the Planning Authority’s decision to refuse the application for a five-storey plus penthouse block of apartments in the Xaghra Urban Conservation Area, within the 50m buffer zone of a Grade 1 scheduled windmill, Flimkien ghal Ambjent Ahjar, is also calling for the “protection of Gozo’s heritage and quality of life”

In a statement, FAA, the environment and heritage NGO said that the “hotly-debated session ultimately focused on the application of the Planning Authority policy re the surroundings of scheduled buildings, issued last March with the backing of Minister Aaron Farrugia.”

FAA went on to say that, “this policy stipulates that the effects of recent developments should be lessened rather than worsened, in order to improve the overall context of the historic building.”

It argued that, “this goes contrary to recent practice where past eyesores are taken as a precedent to justify further uglification.”

However, while this remains a policy, the protection of the surroundings remains subject to the PA boards’ discretion, therefore, FAA said that it is calling for its legal ratification in order to ensure that it “applies fairly and uniformly to all projects.”

FAA also called for the “immediate rescinding of the infamous DC 15 Annex 1 building heights, which are allowing extra building heights all over Malta and Gozo, including within buffer zones.”

FAA stressed that “these 5 and 6 storey buildings are destroying village cores and creating unsightly party walls which are supposedly illegal in urban conservation areas. Gozo skylines are fast being destroyed by such vast expanses of walls rising up in supposedly 2/3 storey areas, marring traditional vistas.”

“Recent development applications include massive blocks of hotels and 50-70 holiday flats in Xlendi, Xaghra, Nadur and Qala that will wreck the quality of life of old-established communities,” FAA said.It noted that the comment by the Superintendent of Cultural Heritage re the development at Triq Gnien Xibla, Xaghra, applies to them all: “The Superintendence notes with serious concern that the scale and intensity of the development being proposed is totally incompatible with the site’s location”

FAA lamented that “these developments are fast ruining the beauty of Gozo’s characteristic villages, the very quality that tourists seek out, therefore undermining tourism that Gozo depends upon.”

It concluded by saying that, “it is up to our politicians to ensure that the PA ceases to be a Permitting Authority and assumes its responsibility as a Planning Authority to ensure Gozo’s economic future, as well as residents’ quality of life.”

Photos: FAA Top view of Marsalforn valley and below – Xaghra Over-Development – Triq Gnien Xibla

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