Jerma or Magħtab? Residents question reference in hotel redevelopment study

The Marsaskala Residents’ Network (MRN) is demanding explanations after flagging references to a Magħtab waste-treatment facility and conflicting project figures in environmental studies for the former Jerma Palace Hotel’s redevelopment.

Checks of the original reports confirm that the ecology study in the report includes several paragraphs about centralising waste management and placing a treatment facility beside Magħtab landfill. It also explains how the facility would reduce waste sent to landfill in what is suspected to be a copy-and-paste exercise.

The passages appear in a section examining planning policy for the Jerma project, and their presence is raising questions about how the report was prepared.

MRN wants the applicant to explain how the material entered the report and confirm that information about another project has not affected the assessment.

The accommodation figures also differ, including within the same document.

The main assessment opens with a planning application description listing 134 hotel rooms, 155 homes and 258 serviced apartments. But a later table gives room and home numbers adding up to 90 and 146, respectively.

A separate public summary also describes 90 hotel rooms and 146 homes.

Parking numbers need explaining too. The main report’s introduction lists 570 spaces, while the ecology report gives 594.

Other sections describe 330 spaces and 191 garages.

In a statement, MRN said that it wants one clear description of the project and corrections wherever the differences affect the findings.

It insisted that these discrepancies require explanations from ERA, the developer and the report authors.