DLH Press Release – 18th June 2008

This morning Din l-Art Helwa once again reiterated its request to the Mepa auditor Mr Joseph Falzon, to carry out an investigation into the way that the Mistra Village application was processed by Mepa.

The NGO highlighted the fact that the Planning Directorate at Mepa recommended the approval of the application even though it went against the 8-storey policy determined for this site, as well as the Floor Area Ratio policy.

The Directorate also ignored the advice of Mepa’s own Heritage Advisory Committee, which was against the approval of this application.

During consultation meetings at Mepa, Din l-Art Helwa repeatedly requested better quality photomontages of the project than the ones available in the EIA. While Mepa agreed to provide them, these images never materialised.

The Mepa board subsequently took the decision to approve the outline application without any photomontages of the latest plans, even though the adverse major visual impact of the project was clearly one of the key concerns of the case, as is also confirmed in the EIA.