Dingli saga continues: Moviment Graffitti say proposed road requires permit

Moviment Graffitti are countering claims by Infrastructure Malta that planned Dingli roadworks do not require a permit, citing discrepancies between the Planning Authority GeoServer and the North West Local Plan.

In their statement Graffitti explains that the schemed road through as shown on the PA GeoServer does not match up with the Local Plan, with the local plan only indicating street alignment on one side while failing to show the alignment on the other side. This is because at least half of the road would fall on ODZ land, and would require a full development application to construct.

The planned roadworks involve the construction of a tarmac road connecting two alleyways – a project Moviment Graffitti argues would destroy cultivated land, protected trees and a medieval chapel nearby. The NGO halted rural road works after Infrastructure Malta started construction over farmland without any permits.

READ ALSO: [WATCH] Protests stop rural road works in Dingli, Infrastructure Malta says no permit required

“If members of Moviment Graffitti, residents, and farmers had not stopped the works in time, not only would have the medieval church of Sta Duminka been in danger of collapse, the road would have been built without a permit as required by law, bulldozing over residents, farmers and arable private land,” they said.   

“This latest development adds to the ever-growing list of illegalities which Infrastructure Malta has been trying to push, from not officially notifying residents of the development that was going to take place in their land, to attempting to commence work without waiting for the appropriate scheduling of the medieval church, to ripping up 300-year old trees without waiting the requisite period as stated by law.”

Moviment Graffitti are now calling on the Infrastructure Ministry and Environment Ministries to halt the plans immediately and remove incomplete road drawing from the local plan.