Gozo’s mayors have decided to set up a fund to finance the significant cost of resisting large-scale construction projects which they say are ruining the island.
Councils incur major expenses to monitor and object to development applications submitted to the Planning Authority. The idea for the fund was last week approved by the Gozo Regional Council, which comprises all of Gozo’s 14 mayors, on a proposal by Qala mayor Paul Buttigieg.
The mayors have taken a united stand against the scourge of development with the Gozo business, tourism and student lobby groups rallying to their cause in recent days.
The regional council’s president, Samuel Azzopardi, confirmed that the council was working on the details of the scheme, which would be decided on within a month.
Buttigieg said the cost of fighting “abusive” applications can run into tens of thousands of euros. Those hefty sums could be put to use in the community instead and should be partly funded by the regional council.
His own council had spent about €20,000 to cover architects, lawyers, consultants and PA fees over the 19-year saga battling contentious Ħondoq development proposals.
Local councils would prefer to spend money on embellishment projects
A similar request for funding to the PA had fallen on deaf ears, he said.
The authority last week agreed to a meeting with the mayors on the subject of overdevelopment after that request, too, had been ignored since it was made in October.
The PA replied to the mayors after the matter was reported in Times of Malta.
Azzopardi, who recently expressed grave preoccupation about the ruin of Gozo, said he was totally in favour of the funding proposal and was just considering the amount that would be allocated.
However, this had to be “concrete funding and not merely a token”, he said.
He is now consulting the regional council’s accounting team to ensure a “sustainable yearly allocation to the fund and not just a one-off contribution”.
Local councils would be able to tap into the fund for aid in carrying out any studies and impact assessments of projects earmarked in particular for sensitive areas, he said.
Buttigieg has also suggested that the local councils would only be covered for 50 per cent of objection expenses to avoid any form of abuse that could see them contesting and engaging architects for any project whatsoever.
Faced with one contentious development application after the other, the Qala mayor also referred to the Ta’ Kassja €15 million mega project, saying the council had lodged an appeal last May and was only called for the hearing in December when the building was already completed.
The €4,000 in fees spent on objecting to the project were the equivalent of the cost of a cleaner in the locality every Sunday, he pointed out, adding that it could do with a utility truck and would have preferred to spend money on that and other embellishment projects.
While the council had no problem using its resources to fend off these projects to protect Qala, it could no longer ignore the financial burden.