Fourth District MP Mark Anthony Sammut has appealed to his constituents to object to a five-storey development being earmarked for Santa Lucija, which, Sammut argues, “will destroy the village’s character”.

Sammut, who also serves as the President of the Nationalist Party’s General Council, publicly lambasted the proposed development yesterday, pointing out how “Santa Lucija is one of the few villages that have been designed in a holistic manner.

“It has maintained its character with different zones allocated for houses and apartments, with a balanced density and open spaces.”

Sammut is railing against the application for the five-storey development being proposed by developer Anton Camilleri that “has appeared in the middle of this village and one of the few remaining green spaces”.

The development application is requesting planning permission for a 48-apartment block with 75 garages in an area that the Local Plan limited to a height of three storeys in keeping with the surrounding character of the village.

The development is being proposed between Triq L-Istefanotis and Triq Katerina Vitale, right in the middle of the locality and under 100 metres from its secondary school.

“I believe this development will destroy the village’s character, it will increase the population density in a small area to five times the average density of the surrounding area, with all the traffic problems and infrastructure that such an increase creates.

“It completely destroys the concept of holistic planning cohesion of planning in one of the few villages where it has been successful.”

Sammut pointed out that the development’s architect is none other than Labour Party deputy leader Daniel Micallef “who in the evening promises us the creation of green spaces in the middle of our villages, and in the morning fills out the applications to destroy them.”

Sammut has implored people of the area to file their objections against the development application [PA/05152/22] by the 22 September deadline.

In his own objection to the project, Sammut noted how a similar application (PA/1432/20), just 100 metres from the site in question, had been rejected precisely for the same reasons. In fact, the development currently being proposed, Sammut said, is 7.5 times bigger than that which had been rejected.

“The psychological impact of the development cannot be ignored,” Sammut explained. “The village is mostly made up of old people and young families. A development of this magnitude will have a negative effect on the quality of life of these residents, particularly until it is completed.”