Around 300 mature indigenous trees and the size of two football grounds of arable farmland are set to be lost forever in Gozo after the Planning Authority’s Environment and Planning Review Tribunal (EPRT) threw out an appeal by Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar against a permit issued in 2021 for a €9 million road widening project between Victoria and Marsalforn.

Making matters worse, a public pledge by Gozo Minister Clint Camilleri to revise the project’s plans to limit its environmental impact as much as possible never materialised. The original designs remain in place and will now be executed.

After around two years of hearing the FAA’s appeal against the project, the EPRT, presided over by PA employee Joseph Borg, turned the appeal down and confirmed the project’s permit (PA3000/19) in its entirety.

The Gozo Ministry has already awarded the €9 million tender to Prax Ltd – a company owned by Nadur developer Joseph Portelli and his associates Daniel Refalo and Mark Agius.

The same company owns and operates an illegal concrete plant in Kerċem that the government has been allowing to continue operating despite being located in a publicly-owned quarry.

In defending the appeal, the Gozo Ministry did not use its in-house lawyers but instead commissioned lawyer Ian Stafrace, a former Planning Authority CEO turned lawyer for Portelli and other contractors.

Through the project, the ministry aims to turn the idyllic tree-lined road between Victoria and Marsalforn into a four-lane road with a 2.5-metre-wide bicycle lane.

The road in question is a Gozo landmark and is never congested. It is mostly busy during the month of August when hordes of Maltese descend upon the sister island, which has led to questions about the project’s necessity and to suspicions it is intended to merely line contractors’ pockets.

An ‘environmental massacre’

Critics have deemed the project nothing short of an ‘environmental massacre’.

Approximately 11,000 square metres of arable agricultural land tilled by farmers, and some 3,000 cubic metres of soil, will be eaten up to widen the road.

Designs show the clusters of trees along the road set to be chopped or moved.

The 300-odd mature, indigenous trees characterising the road are also earmarked for the chop.

Another 8,000 square metres of farmland will also be destroyed, although the ministry said this would be a temporary measure until the project is completed.

In September 2021 – when the project had already seen stiff objections from NGOs, farmers and citizens – Gozo Minister Clint Camilleri met with Din l-Art Ħelwa, during which he promised the project would be revised.

In a statement, the Gozo Regional Development Authority said, “Minister Camilleri stated his commitment and openness to achieve consensus and to incorporate proposals by Din l-Art Ħelwa Għawdex to achieve a more sensitive design which will retain the road’s scenic character, minimising the amount of agricultural land taken, loss of trees and the risk to valley watercourses while reducing traffic in central Victoria through the planned bypass, ensuring road safety and reducing the overall cost of the project.”

The project’s plans, drawn up by Labour Party Secretary William Lewis by direct order, remain unchanged despite the minister’s pledge.

Minister Camilleri has not answered questions The Shift sent asking him to explain why new designs to amend the project’s permit have not been drawn up and why he has reneged on his pledge.