Update 2: Mepa gives City Gate projects the go-ahead

(Adds PN and PL statements)

The Malta Environment and Planning Authority this afternoon approved the development at City Gate, as proposed by Renzo Piano.

This includes the entrance to the city, the building of Parliament House on Freedom Square, and the 'roofless theatre' on the site of the former opera house.

The Planning Directorate recommended approval in a report presented to the Mepa board this morning when the it started its final hearing on the proposed development. The development was approved against a number of conditions, including a bank guarantee of half a million euros.

Mepa approved the development with nine votes against one with the Labour Party's representative on the board Roderick Galdes voting against. Earlier he moved a motion for the decision to be postponed but no other board member seconded the motion.

Case officer Joe Borg explained the detailed proposal and Bernand Platner, a partner at Renzo Piano's office gave an explanation of the project, which the office started working upon 20 years ago.That project had never taken off.

He said about the current proposals that the firm was very careful in its designs which included a mixture of dreams and the reality of the site.

Steel, he said, was the only new element being introduced. Mr Platner said that the garden in the ditch was not the only open space for the people but an important part of the whole project. The bridge, he said, was being reduced from 22 metres to eight.

The first objector to speak was Miriam Cremona from Flimkien Ghal Ambjent Ahjar. She insisted that the project required a traffic impact assessment and not just a statement.

The project, she said, also lacked an environmental impact assessment which case officers said was not required. Ms Cremona said that according to the Structure Plan, a new government administration centre had to be developed outside Valletta to house most government departments while Parliament and ministries had to concentrate in the palaces and auberges of Valletta.

This, she said, was the law. It was clear and concise and could not be interpreted.

Representing musicians, saxaphonist Val Valente said the country needed a proper theatre. The proposal, he said, further ruined the opera house site. The people were not consulted and 85 per cent of population wanted the theatre as it was before.

However, John Ebejer, from the Valletta Alive Foundation, said he agreed with project as it was essential for the regeneration of the capital .

The meeting, at the Mediterranean Conference Centre, was attended by around 50 representatives of environment NGOs.

PN'S REACTION

In its reaction, the Nationalist party said the Renzo Piano projects would give the capital back its dignity, encourage more tourists to visit, increase commercial activity and create new jobs.

All this money would remain in the Maltese economy. In the development stages, the projects would also create jobs in different sectors.

The PN said that while Labour leader Joseph Muscat had on December 7, 2008 welcomed the plans and said they should have come years earlier, the Labour Party's representative on the board this morning voted against.

The PN said it was not the first time that the Labour Party opted to oppose the national good.

PL'S REACTION

The Labour Party said that had the government really wanted to make a national project out of the City Gate projects, it should have consulted the people. It was now clear that such consultation had never taken place.

The Prime Minister instead chose to make an ego-trip out of the project.

The PL said that the autonomy of the Mepa board had been undermined with a propaganda exercise by officials from the Transport Ministry, including a PN candidate, and the presentation to Mepa included video clips aimed at discrediting environmental organisations.

This confirmed that the Mepa board was being manipulated by the government and that the reform had died before it was born.

It was also not yet known what was the brief or original instruction given to Renzo Piano, how, when, why and how many times was the brief changed, why had it not been said before the election that Freedom Square would be developed, why had the need been felt for such a disproportionate expense for the building of a new Parliament when compared with the building of the theatre and what were the alternatives to what had been decided.

The PL said that the government had been insensitive to the publicly expressed belief of around 130 artists who spoke against a roofless theatre.

The fact that the government would go ahead with the project without the promised consultation left the PL representative without any other choice but to vote against the application, it said.

The Nationalist Party was in such a panic at the people’s reaction that it failed to see the PL’s consistent position about the project.

The PL had always been in favour of the regeneration of City Gate but insisted that this project should be the people’s and should follow wide consultation.