Former prime minister Alfred Sant has joined the growing chorus of concern about building development in Gozo, while also voicing his opposition to an airport in Gozo and a tunnel linking Malta to its sister island.
In a Facebook post on Sunday, the MEP noted that many people, a large number of them Gozitans, agreed that so-called development in Gozo had reached unsustainable levels.
Clearly, there was truth in what they were saying, he wrote.
"The island is becoming like a small Malta and it is losing the attractions that draw visitors to it."
The issue was that there were too many 'ambiguous intentions' in the mix, Sant said.
"I cannot understand, for example, how serious tourism promoters in Gozo express concern about the level of 'development' and yet come out in favour of that monstrous project, the tunnel between Malta and Gozo, which at least appears to have been shelved once more," Sant wrote.
"Or you even find them in favour of the building of an airport for passenger aircraft, a resurrected project which should have been binned for ever.
Last week, the Gozo Tourism Association reported that all of its members who participated in an online survey said they believed the island was losing its charm and characteristics to overdevelopment.
Gozo Minister Clint Camilleri was quoted as saying in MaltaToday last month that the building of a regional airport was an electoral promise that the government was determined to see through, especially now that all studies showed that the benefits related to the project as proposed, outweighed its impacts.
Plans for the airport were published in a public consultation in May, with the government saying that the disused Xewkija helipad would be extended into a 450m runway suitable for small aircraft.
The tunnel project is also a Labour electoral project the government has committed to. In September Times of Malta reported that Infrastructure Malta had shortlisted a bidder but two unsuccessful bidders had filed appeals after being ruled out of the project by a public contracts body.