Updated 2.20pm with Infrastructure Malta reaction
Burmarrad residents have raised the alarm over a new road planned through ODZ land that Infrastructure Malta is trying to keep secret, Arnold Cassola is claiming.
Infrastructure Malta has however refuted the claim, saying Cassola based his unfounded allegations on a 1988 proposal that never got off the ground.
The independent candidate said on Wednesday that the plans were also confirmed to him by an Infrastructure Malta whistleblower.
The plan, he said, is to build a new road from the Erba' Mwieżeb roundabout situated between St Paul’s Bay and Burmarrad, through fields behind the Kiabi Complex and ending just next to the Burmarrad football ground.
He questioned whether this new road would be serving anyone’s interest, such as the Bonnici Brothers, who were recently flagged by activists as having an interest in separate IM works close by.
Last year, Moviment Graffitti claimed IM wanted to build a roundabout that threatened arable land and the destruction of a 500-year-old reservoir at Burmarrad so as to benefit Bonnici Brothers, who is behind the proposed development of a supermarket on ODZ land.
The St Paul’s Bay council had objected to the proposed supermarket and wanted IM to revise plans for the new roundabout.
On Wednesday, Cassola said the local council had not been informed of the exact details of the new planned road and that he suspected plans would only be revealed after the election.
Residents had told him the land was the only open space they had for some exercise in the fresh air.
The area, he said, was already circled by a very busy main road and the Coast Road, and residents did not need another road.
He called on environmental NGOs and civil society to object to this destruction of agricultural open space, which will not only bring about an increase in vehicle traffic in the area but also a deterioration in air quality to the detriment of residents' health.
'An outright lie'
Reacting to Cassola's claims, IM said that since its establishment in 2018, it had never considered, designed or planned any new bypass road in Burmarrad and its surroundings.
The alleged road as described by Cassola does not feature in the area’s current local plan and no request or proposal for its planning or construction has ever been presented to IM, the agency said in a statement, adding that "any allegation to the contrary is an outright lie".
IM said that the road as described by Cassola was not sustainable from a traffic management and an environmental point of view and had it actually been proposed to the agency, it would have been turned down outright.
The agency said it had carried out research and identified a 1988 plan for Burmarrad in which a road similar to the one described by Cassola was being considered by previous administrations.
The indicated road did not subsequently feature in the 2006 North West Local Plan, confirming that this proposal dating back 33 years was dropped over a decade ago.
"Cassola is basing his unfounded allegations on a 1988 proposal which never got off the ground."
Photo: Infrastructure Malta
Photo: Infrastructure Malta