Żurrieq farmers accuse Zrinzo Azzopardi of 'playing with words'

Lands Minister Stefan Zrinzo Azzopardi has been accused of “playing with words” to downplay a push to build a road through agricultural land in Żurrieq.

The controversy concerns a tract of government-owned land in Żurrieq’s Tal-Bebbux. The land was earmarked for development in the 2006 local plans but has been farmed by locals for generations.

Those fields are now the subject of a Planning Control application filed by a private developer who owns a nearby plot. The application seeks to build a road through the public land and would, if approved, effectively evict two farmers.

Thousands of people have filed objections to the proposal and the Żurrieq local council has also said it is opposed to the plans. But the Lands Authority, which falls under Zrinzo Azzopardi’s control, has said it has no issue with the application. The application cannot be approved unless the authority approves it.

In a brief intervention on RTK103 on Saturday morning, Zrinzo Azzopardi argued that the land was always earmarked for development and that the Lands Authority was therefore simply adhering to procedure in this case.

The government-owned tract of land would not be given to private developers and any future development there “will be for the benefit of the community,” the minister told radio host Andrew Azzopardi.

“This is PC application within the development zone... originally the plan was for all the land targeted by the application to be built up. Last year, following government direction the decision was made to keep ownership of the land and only develop it for the community’s benefit,” he said.

Zrinzo Azzopardi – who is elected from the fifth district that Żurrieq forms a part of – also claimed that he and the town’s local council had “an agreement” about restricting development on the government-owned land to projects that will benefit the broader community.

Farmers: 'Who is government helping?'

But in a later intervention on the RTK103 show, the two farmers directly impacted by the project said the minister was “playing with words”.

“The government says it is not giving land to private developers. Fine, but if it is building a road through its land to give them access, who is it helping?” Robert Bondin Carter asked.

Fellow farmer Annalisa Schembri also argued that the minister was not being entirely truthful.

“The minister said he has a deal with the local council. But in its submissions to the Planning Authority, the council said that ‘Local council insists public land should remain as agricultural land and the zoning requirements including any new streets in the land owned by rhe development’,” Schembri said, reading from the council submissions.

Schembri said Zrinzo Azzopardi has so far not met with them, despite various public calls for a meeting.

“I want him to come to our fields and see for himself. Maybe he’ll say his hands aren’t tied by local plans, but by something else. Let’s be honest,” she said.

“Żurrieq is being bombarded with development. In the last years we’ve had four or five ministers elected from the district. Whose responsibility is this? When we look back in the years to come, who will we point the finger at for what we have done?”