Residents file appeal against Mistra ridge mega-project

Residents from Xemxija, St Paul’s Bay and other localities have filed an appeal against the proposed mega-development on Mistra ridge.

The residents crowdfunded both the appeal and legal costs, raising a total of €7,350 over the span of less than ten days.

In January, the Planning Authority approved the renewal of a permit for 744 apartment on four terraced blocks, which would rise to 12 storeys, on the Mistra ridge, in place of the former Corinthia Mistra Village Hotel.

The original permit, issued in 2013 and valid for five years, would have lost any legal validity had it not been renewed.

READ ALSO: Mistra ridge mega-project has permit renewed

Save The North resident group subsequently engaged in an effort to fight the high-rise conglomeration of apartments, which they described in a statement on Tuesday as “intensive, congestive and intrusive”.

“There have been no studies about the impact of this project for the last fifteen years. It was disastrous then, it is even worse now,” Karen Tanti, an activist from the group, said.

“Our environment, road networks and infrastructure cannot take it. We are already flooded with unsustainable planning permits and we cannot understand why the PA acts as a rubber-stamping body allowing developers to build all over us in the most irresponsible and arrogant manner,” Tanti highlighted.

“Residents have risen against the project because they are the ones left to deal with overcrowding, pollution, and everything else this wave of overdevelopment brings,” she added.

“Luckily, other communities from around Malta have given us their support and we will support them too when their time comes. This is a grassroots movement which has worked hard to keep partisan politics out of the equation, and will not be bought out or silenced by the powerful construction lobbies.”