'We will vandalise your vandalism': posters warn contractor on Mellieħa project

Several protest posters targeting GAP developer Paul Attard have appeared at the controversial Mellieħa Heights site, where a 109-unit apartment block is being developed.

The posters, mostly directed at Attard, criticise the 50-year lease agreement granted to developers for €380,000 a year, despite earlier estimates that valued the public land at over €12 million.

The project, led by T&S Property Holdings, will see 92 apartments and 17 penthouses built in Tal-Qortin, along with 171 underground garages. The company is majority owned by Paul Attard, also the developer behind GAP Homes, through his firm TRD Holdings Ltd. Attard and Paul Vella, of Ballut Blocks Ltd, serve as the company’s directors.

One poster, which parodied a government budget announcement and featured Attard’s photograph, read:

“€380,000. Incentives to speculate. Buy a plot of government land for the price of an apartment. A strong economy. A future for our children.”

The poster refrencing the 50-year perpetual revisable emphyteusis against an annual payment of €380,000.

Another poster, titled Halloween in the Heights, targeted both Attard and Economy Minister Silvio Schembri, who headed the Lands Ministry when the deal was struck. It showed their faces alongside the message: “Please take a minute to thank your sponsors”, with references to the Lands Authority, GAP, and the Malta Developers Association.

The poster referencing Attard and the Economy Minister

One poster took on a more pointed and arguably threatening tone. It read: “We will be back to vandalise your vandalism on your own hometown. Even after these walls have been torn down.”

The letter addressed to Paul Attard on the Mellieha Heights development.

In response to a request for comment, Attard’s legal representative told Times of Malta: “Whilst respecting people's right to an opinion, the company condemns all forms of crime. To this end, it shall report the matter to the police for their investigation in lieu of the threats made.”

A spokesperson for Minister Schembri said: “The Lands Authority is an independent authority run by a board of governors that includes representation from both the government and the Opposition. The minister is not involved in the authority’s decisions at any point.”

Residents have expressed concern over the development on several occasions. They argue it will replace a green lung in Mellieħa Heights, warning that the 4,000-square-metre area is being sacrificed for a “concrete trophy.”

They are expected to attend a news conference on Saturday, organised by Il-Kollettiv. Ten other resident groups will also be present, calling for “planning justice” and “respect for their realities” amid growing frustration over the project.

Contacted for comment, the locality’s mayor, Gabriel Micallef, who has actively protested against the development by writing to the Prime Minister and submitting formal objections, said he did not know who was responsible for the posters.

“The people of the area know how important this land was. They are aware of the difficulties it will bring us — infrastructure, traffic, roads — and we, as a council, are facing a tsunami of political decisions that have protected the few and not the many,” he said.