A green area on the periphery of Pembroke is being cleared out for Infrastructure Malta to widen a stretch of the Pembroke-Swieqi main road. 

The intervention is part of the road agency's Pembroke Junction project, which includes St Andrews Road. 

"The project in St Andrews Road, Swieqi, is a major Infrastructure Malta investment," a spokesperson for the agency said. 

A dual carriageway with two traffic light junctions will become safer by introducing two hairpin turns to facilitate crossing over without stopping the opposite flow, he said. 

But several trees along the road need to be pruned, uprooted or transplanted as a result, the spokesperson said. 

To compensate, the agency will plant 258 trees and shrubs within the same site, he said, adding that the agency will transplant other trees within the area of the project. 

All is above board through environmental permit EP 1443/21, the spokesperson said, adding that "works are being carried out under the guidance of expert arborists".

The spokesperson said 44 olive trees, six African tamarisk, and nine almond trees are being uprooted and transplanted.

Three ombu trees, one chinaberry tree, one rubber tree, 25 Leyland cypress trees, 15 dead olive trees, 13 Eucalyptus and 22 Aleppo pines are also being uprooted. 

Other trees need to be pruned, the roads agency spokesperson said. 

Pembroke mayor Dean Hili said that the intervention was needed as traffic problems in the locality had increased. 

"Our locality has grown and a junction is needed," he said.  

He noted that several individuals and NGO's had planted trees in the area. 

"It's not nice to see their work go to waste," he said. 

He added that the council had never planted anything there because it knew something was going to happen," he said.

Mark Galea Pace is among those who planted numerous trees in the area. 

On social media, he described the development as "a stab in the heart". 

"Half a park destroyed, 30 of my young trees bulldozed, about 20 large mature beautiful Maltese trees brutalised and dead". 

Galea Pace said he planted and watered many of the trees that were uprooted. 

Apart from "destroying" half of the green area, workers were careless with what remained, he said. 

"They put heavy pipes on what remained of the greenery, squashing two other trees," he told Times of Malta.