AD accuses Mepa of abusing position

The general secretary of Alternattiva Demokratika, Stephen Cachia, yesterday accused the Malta Environment and Planning Authority of abusing its position in an attempt to silence its critics.

Mr Cachia was reacting to a statement that Mepa issued on Saturday over a proposed development in Hamrun.

He said the authority had released only partial information about two separate cases related to an AD official and a family who appeared with AD officials during a press conference on site in Hamrun last Friday. The AD press conference was critical of the way Mepa has handled the case of a major development in Hamrun.

Mr Cachia said that it was scandalous that Mepa was using information pertaining to two unrelated cases in an attempt to silence and stifle critics instead of facing up to the criticism itself. It was even more scandalous that Mepa was resorting to giving partial information instead of the whole facts in a clear attempt to smear one of the party's officials.

"Whoever issued this press release and released this partial information has a political axe to grind and therefore has no place in such an important institution as Mepa which should be clearly seen to be above politics," continued Mr Cachia.

He said that Mepa had only given part of the information related to the case of AD official Mark Causon who, in his private capacity, was restoring a house in Rabat. Mepa failed to say that Mr Causon collaborated exhaustively with Mepa and the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage and works were stopped for a very lengthy period of time with the full collaboration of Mr Causon, resulting in financial costs.