Agricultural land near Bulebel to be saved from development

A large tract of land adjacent Bulebel industrial estate in Żejtun is to be taken out of the development zone following the first decision taken by the new Cabinet on Tuesday.

The decision was announced in a Facebook post by Prime Minister Robert Abela, who said this would be a government that put the people first.

Abela praised the efforts of farmers, the NGO Wirt iż-Żejtun and the locality's local council, who had campaigned for the 96,000 square metre area, known as Wied iż-Żrinġ, to be preserved.

Abela had actually first promised to amend the local plans and save the area in 2024.

Times of Malta had reported how Wirt iż-Żejtun had been urging the authorities to amend local plans, six years after the government vowed not to expand the industrial zone into those rural areas.

Wied iż-Żrinġ was earmarked for future expansion back in the 1980s. It retained that designation when planners updated local plans in 2006, though a provision called for “further study to determine the agricultural value of the area before any additional industrial development can be permitted.”

That notwithstanding, in 2010 the land in question was placed under the responsibility of Malta Industrial Parks (now INDIS) and in late 2015 farmers in the Wied iż-Żrinġ area received eviction notices, giving them one month to vacate their land.

The notices sparked public uproar and a years-long battle by Żejtun residents and activists to drop the plan.

In 2018, the government did just that. That decision was followed by a meeting of parliament’s environment and planning committee in April 2018, during which members called on the government to amend the area’s local plan to make the area outside the development zone.

Then, in May 2024, Abela told Labour Party activists that the government would amend the 2006 local plans to protect the agricultural land, a promise that has now been made again.