Planning tribunal rules in favour of uprooting centenarian trees in Dingli

The Environment and Planning Review Tribunal turned down an appeal presented by Moviment Graffitti against a nature permit for the felling of 300-year-old carob trees in Dingli. 

The permit was issued in October by the Environment and Resources Authority (ERA) to enable road works by Infrastructure Malta. 

Back in October, Graffitti activists teamed up with farmers and residents from Dingli to inhibit roadworks from starting, by standing in front of machinery to stop any movement.

But instead of delving in to the merits of the case, the Tribunal announced that it was abstaining from hearing the case, because the NGO has no direct interest in the case and could not appeal against the permit.  

“Appellants must prove that they are an aggrieved party and prove their direct interest in the case...and the appellants failed to prove that they were aggrieved by ERA’s decision,” the Tribunal concluded. 

In their appeal, Graffitti argued that ERA’s decision was unreasonable and did not consider the adverse effects on the eco-system to which the trees contributed. They also argued that ERA was not in a position to issue the permit to uproot trees since the proposed works were not even covered by a full development permit, despite the fact that half the area in question is ODZ. 

In a previous sitting held in November the ecological importance of the trees in question had been underlined by leading environmental expert and former Environment Director Alfred Baldacchino who described the uprooted trees as the “healthiest carob trees he had ever seen in Malta” and that ERA should have issued a tree protection order instead of a permit to uproot them.  

ERA official Joseph Henwood had insisted that the justification for the uprooting of the trees was that the road in question was a “schemed” one and covered by a road works permit issued by Transport Malta. 

In October ERA had issued an environmental permit allowing Infrastructure Malta to uproot trees in a Dingli street. The permit allowed for the “pruning and uprooting of trees at new schemed road off Triq San Ġwann Bosco, Dingli.” Among the trees set to be uprooted are two large carob trees aged over 300 years old. 

The nature permit was granted so that IM can construct a tarmac road connecting two alleyways, a project that has been staunchly opposed by Moviment Graffitti, which argues that it will destroy cultivated land, protected trees and the setting of the medieval Santa Duminka chapel. IM insists that the road works did not require a planning permit.