Moviment Graffitti along with residents and farmers has urged Infrastructure Malta to stop works on a controversial new road in Dingli and called on the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage and the Planning Authority to issue an Emergency Conservation Order to protect the late medieval church of Santa Duminka.

They have also called for changes to the local plan to remove the planned road.

The requests follow a protest last Friday after Infrastructure Malta workers turned up with heavy machinery and with no warning and started works on the new road which will cut across private fields.

The new road will connect the alley at Id-Daħla tas-Sienja to Triq Don Bosco.

The residents and the activist group questioned the need for the road, noting that although it had been planned since 1998, no action had ever been taken to build it.  

"Besides destroying a site of great archaeological importance, the road in question will also be highly detrimental to the livelihood of several  farmers, who currently till the land and grow crops, and who have owned this land for many years. Moreover, the water reservoirs that currently provide much-needed water to irrigate these  fields are in jeopardy due to this development," Graffitti said. 

"The building of this road will also create pressure for more development in the ODZ areas surrounding the proposed road, as there have already been applications for residences on ODZ in that exact area. Dingli is one of the few remaining rural villages in this country, and the residents want to preserve it as such."