Warehouse in Għargħur country lane approved in PA ‘charade’

A controversial application to build a warehouse off a narrow residential lane between Għargħur and Madliena has been approved by the Planning Authority in a hearing described as a “choreographed charade” by one objector.

The development was unanimously approved last week in a hearing of the Planning Commission for Outside Development Zone (ODZ), by chairperson  Martin Camilleri and members Frank Ivan Caruana Catania and Joel Fenech.

The decision paves the way for tuna farming magnate Anthony Azzopardi’s company Anchor Properties to build a 2,100- square-metre warehouse at the site off Triq Santa Katerina on the outskirts of Għargħur.

Azzopardi’s plans are part of larger designs to develop a complex of 60 warehouses at the site, with four permits from different applicants awaiting assessment and another already approved for adjacent plots.

Reacting to the decision, one objector who followed the hearing said residents felt “completely let down by the PA”, stressing they did not feel their concerns – raised again during the sitting by an architect acting on their behalf – had been heeded.

“To have people on the board not even react, it just felt like we were going through the motions, that it was pre-decided... it didn’t feel like our concerns had been properly addressed,” he said. He described the hearing as feeling like a “choreographed charade”.

Developers had defended the plans as a 'redevelopment of an existing licensed quarry'.

Pointing to the application’s reliance on a traffic management plan dating back to 2017, the resident, who asked not to be named, questioned how it had been accepted by the PA while including a proposal to widen Triq Santa Katerina in a way he said would eat into flanking private property.

Characterising the decision as encouraging a “free-for-all”, he added residents had recently applied to revoke a permit to build warehouses on an adjacent plot at the site.

Speaking to Times of Malta last month, residents had described Azzopardi’s plans as “insane” and “ridiculous”, citing concerns over traffic, noise and pollution.

Objectors said their narrow and already congested one-way street – leading onto the busy Triq tal-Balal dual carriageway linking Naxxar and San Ġwann – would end up being used as an access road for the complex, becoming even busier and more dangerous.

Developers had defended the plans as a “redevelopment of an existing licensed quarry” close to existing warehouses and said they wanted to “reduce disturbance to third parties”.

A spokesperson for Azzopardi had stressed the site was planned for “general warehousing use” and would not be used as a distribution centre or by Azzopardi Fisheries, ruling out use of the facility by the tuna farming giant in the immediate future.

Responding to traffic concerns, the developers had said they would do “everything according to [the traffic management plan]” should the permit be approved.