The founders of the Malta Ranger Unit recognised the need for a dedicated group to address the gap between reporting environmental crimes and successful prosecution
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The Minister for Gozo, Clint Camilleri, uploaded a post gloating about the works carried out illegally in Comino. He takes a dig at all the people who commented about the works, claiming that the accompanying photos provide a different picture to the scenario conjured up by his critics. The photos actually show a hideous expanse of coloured concrete paving on Comino.
Whereas before, there was a perfectly serviceable track which blended with the wild and unspoilt context of Comino, there is now something very much like the paving of an enclosure at a zoo. This excess of concrete was deemed to be an ‘emergency work’ of the utmost importance – to be executed without delay and without obtaining a permit. This so-called ‘emergency work’ consists of a service culvert. It will probably service the cacophony of kiosks mushrooming on Comino – ruining the last spot of pristine unbuilt area there is.
On April 17, writing in this newspaper, ERA’s CEO, Michelle Piccinino, regaled us with a plethora of legal actions devised to afford protection to trees,
Infrastructure Malta did not require a permit to carry out roadworks in the vicinity of the scheduled Santa Duminka medieval chapel, which passed right through 300-year old carob trees.
This is because a legal notice dating back to 2008, exempts state bodies from seeking permits for the development of schemed roads, or rather. lines drawn on maps; in this case dating back to 1965 which were carried over in the local plan published in 2006.
But while in some cases these works do follow the lines set out in plans (as in a similar case in Żabbar), in the Dingli case the map drawn on the local plan did not cross over the development zone boundary.