The Environment and Resources Authority has objected to a planning application that seeks to turn disused farmland into tourism accommodation.
The proposal, PA/03071/22, by a company called AMJ Invest Limited, seeks to demolish two farms previously used for rearing swine and sheep on Triq il-Power Station and construct seven single-storey blocks as well as a swimming pool.
In its consultation on the application, ERA said that the development would commit some 8,300 square metres of land and take up a substantial amount of undeveloped space outside the development zone in order to accommodate it.
While this is already of concern, the regulator added that the site lies very close to a protected coastal marshland and is well within its buffer zone, which should be kept free from development, it said.
The site is situated close to il-Ballut ta’ Marsaxlokk, a special area of conservation, a bird sanctuary and a Natura 2000 site, as well as the Il-Magħluq marshland, which is a scheduled area of ecological importance.
The proposal is likely to introduce longer-term cumulative impacts
“The introduction of such development is considered deleterious to the effective conservation and management of the above-mentioned Natura 2000 site through the introduction of extraneous development within the legally protected area as well as urbanisation of the immediate hinterland of the marshland itself,” ERA said.
“The proposal is also likely to introduce longer-term cumulative impacts, as ad hoc approval of such developments tends to introduce additional pressures for similar development on nearby lands.”
Such impacts would effectively prejudice the longer-term integrity of the Natura 2000 site and cannot be effectively addressed through case-by-case studies and should be pre-empted at source through the avoidance of incompatible development. Thus, the proposal cannot be considered favourably, it said.
Adding that while the development falls within the scope of environmental impact assessment regulations and would require the submission of a project description statement, this would not resolve the “basic environmental conflicts” that the application raises.