A total of 150 Marsascala residents signed a petition that was presented to the Office of the Prime Minister this week calling for a stop to what they called plans to build a water polo pitch in Marsascala Bay.
The Marsascala Sports Club was evicted from the old national pool complex in Żonqor Point as part of the land concession linked to the American University of Malta project. This paper reported in July that the club had filed an injunction against the Land Department but this was later withdrawn.
The dispute revolved around the commitment made last year by the government of new facilities to the club to replace the old national pool, which is to be integrated into the university campus planned for the area. An OPM spokesman had said the government was committed to providing an alternate site for the water polo pitch.
In the petition, residents objected to the building of a water polo pitch that would be accessed from Triq is-Salini, which is on the opposite side of Żonqor Point. It said that locating the pitch near a residential zone would cause noise problems for residents, as well as parking problems.
The petition is appealing to the government to relocate the water polo pitch elsewhere on land rather than at sea.
It said the pitch should be located away from residential areas in order to avoid causing any inconvenience. The petition, which was also signed by a number of mariners, pointed out that Marsascala Bay was already narrow making it difficult to navigate.
Transport Malta this month published a notice to mariners asking them to remove boats moored in the area in question in order for a “site investigation” to take place.
A spokesman for Transport Malta did not divulge what the proposed development in the area was.
The spokesman said Transport Malta, as the relevant maritime authority, was asked to investigate the bedrock in Marsascala Bay.
Transport Malta would be investigating the ground and rock with core recovery, both onshore and offshore over a period of three weeks, the spokesman said.
Marsascala boat owners staged a protest earlier last month, during which they expressed their fears that they would no longer be able to moor their boats in the area being investigated by Transport Malta.