A top NGO has vowed to protect Marsalforn valley as road-widening plans indicate 200 mature trees will be uprooted and 10,692 square metres of agricultural and other land will be gobbled up.

The project, covered by permit PA/03000/19, includes the widening of the arterial road between Victoria and Marsalforn and the development of another road that will serve to bypass traffic away from Victoria’s centre.

In a statement on Friday, Din L-Art Ħelwa Għawdex said the Gozo Ministry had claimed that an agreement it had reached with the organisation could not be implemented because of road regulations and standards imposed by the different government authorities.

The organisation said recent requests for meetings with the ministry and its architects have been in vain.

On Tuesday, the Environment and Resources Authority gave the ministry permission to uproot almost 100 trees along the arterial road between Victoria and Marsalforn.

According to the permit, 62 of the trees will be transplanted while 37 will be uprooted and replaced with compensatory trees.

But in its statement, Din l-Art Ħelwa Għawdex said that after months of discussions and years of planning, the final plans submitted indicate that:

• 200 mature trees will be uprooted, more than the original 177 that were envisaged to be dug up in the first version of the project with 98 trees to be transplanted;
• The plans will gobble up 10,692 square metres of agricultural and other land, just 12% less land than the 12,170 square metres originally envisaged; and
• No specific assurances about the safety of the numerous valley watercourses and reservoirs in Marsalforn Valley were given.

Din L-Art Ħelwa Għawdex said that, in 2021, it held a series of meetings with the Ministry for Gozo to try to find a compromise that would reduce the environmental impact of the project.

From the outset, it agreed with the need for the Victoria by-pass to reduce the ever-increasing traffic congestion in central Victoria.

But it had requested significant downsizing of the project in the picturesque area facing the Capuchins convent down the valley to Marsalforn for the protection of agricultural land, trees and watercourses.

In September 2021, a press release was issued jointly by DLĦGħ and the ministry in which the minister stated his commitment to achieve consensus and to incorporate proposals by the organisation.

Because of the goodwill that had been shown by the minister at the time, Din l-Art Ħelwa took a conscious decision not to challenge the Planning Authority approval at Environmental and Planning Review Tribunal level.

Cordial and constructive meetings with government architects then continued at a technical level.

But the ministry is now claiming that the agreement reached with DLĦGħ could not be implemented because of road regulations and standards imposed by the different government authorities.

Recent requests for meetings with the ministry and its architects have been to no avail.

"DLĦGħ expresses deep disappointment with this outcome and cannot agree with the major and unnecessary negative impact on the Marsalforn valley and road on which traffic congestion is practically non-existent, contending that professional resurfacing and removal of two dangerous spots is enough," it said.

It said it is willing to meet the Ministry for Gozo at a technical level and work together on a revision of plans to avoid any misdirected use of public funds and also to acknowledge the growing public outrage over the general state of construction and impact of large infrastructural projects on Gozo’s environment.

"There is still time to put the project on hold and re-address the issues in a calm, reasonable and pragmatic manner allowing common sense to prevail," Din l-Art Ħelwa Għawdex insisted.