Marsascala risks being engulfed by plans to develop two large supermarkets and a hotel in the area, the Green Party said on Saturday as it presented its candidate to run for a local council seat in this year’s elections.

Brian Decelis will represent the ADPD on Marsascala ballot sheets in the June elections, with the candidate pledging to ensure a “fair balance between business and the needs and wishes of residents”.

He argued that Marsascala is primarily a residential locality and must keep its character.

Decelis was joined at a press conference by ADPD deputy chairperson Carmel Cacopardo, who said local councils needed to speak out louder to stop unrelenting development that is destroying the social fabric of local towns and villages.

Cacopardo used Marsascala as a case in point, noting that the Planning Authority is currently faced with two applications to build supermarkets in the area, as well as a proposal to build a hotel – as well as plans to turn the former Jerma Palace Hotel into blocks of apartments.

Aside from generating traffic, the two supermarkets would also deal a blow to small and medium-sized shops in the town, Cacopardo said.

ADPD had already made its opposition to the supermarket plans clear in a statement earlier this week. 

Plans to develop a hotel made little sense, he added, given that a carrying capacity study published in 2022 revealed that Malta would need to more than double its yearly tourists to fill all the hotel beds available or being planned.

“This is yet another case in point where the Planning Authority is failing in its duty to regulate land use wisely, since it is expected that we will far exceed the hospitality facilities than the country actually needs, eventually resulting in shutdowns and bankruptcies,” Cacopardo said.

Decelis emphasised the importance of Marsascala remaining a residential town and not being overly commercialised.  

“The needs of its residents must remain paramount, rather than the needs of property speculators,” he said. “Areas which are hardly disturbed, such as at the sites where the two supermarkets and the hotel have been applied for, are to be safeguarded.”

Decelis said other residential issues that need to be given importance include the encroachment of tables and chairs on pavements and excessively loud music in certain areas late into the night.