The Environment and Resources has changed its position on a proposal to turn a disused explosives factory in Dingli into a tourism complex of 14 bungalows, registering no objection to the application as long as measures to lessen the impact of the development are taken. 

ERA had previously objected to applications to revive the former factory site, citing the impact of extensive development such projects would have brought into the rural area. 

However in a screening report dated March 29, ERA concluded that the new project would not require an Environmental Impact Assessment and that the proposal is “not expected to have any significant impact on the integrity of the habitat, species and the Natura 2000 site as a whole” as long as mitigation measures are implemented. 

In its earlier comments on the current application ERA acknowledged that the proposal had been significantly slimmed down on development massing and added that previously built projects on the site should not commit it to future development. 

“ERA acknowledges that the choice of location of particular hazardous developments such as explosives factories may often be constrained by safety considerations and may thus need to be located away from residential areas,” they wrote. 

“ERA does not support the principle that such development should serve as a pretext for committing sites for further development, however it notes the current built commitments on site,” the authority wrote in its submissions.

The ERA had expressed overall objection to the eco-spa and resort, “also considering the extensive intensification of development that would have been introduced by these proposals”.

It said that compared to previous applications, the proposed new development has been downsized andis “generally contained within the existing massing”.

The complex proposes the use of some 6,275sqm for the building of 14 bungalows, each with its own swimming pool as well as a management block and ancillary facilities, including a cesspit.  The land the former factory lies on is in an area known as il-Qaws and is a designated Natura 2000 site in between L-Irdum ta’ l-Iħfar and Ix-Xagħra tal-Qaws.

The site is also adjacent to another two Natura 2000 sites and falls within a scheduled Area of Ecological Importance as well as an Area of High Landscape Value.