ERA set to object to St Albert’s ODZ application

The relocation of the St Albert College from Valletta to ODZ farmland in Ghaxaq  is objectionable from an environmental point view, a memo drafted by experts in the Environment and Resources Authority, states.

The memo - which is meant to guide the ERA board which will be discussing the project on Friday - also warns that the introduction of such a large-scale development, would also lead to subsequent future development commitments in the surrounding area, leading to additional urban sprawl.

The final decision on the proposed development has to be taken by the Planning Authority’s board where ERA has a representative.

According to an Environment Impact Assessment presented in January the project on ODZ land designated for school development in the local plans approved in 2006 will result in the loss of more than 28,000sq.m of agricultural land.

The project will cover an area that is equivalent to four full size football pitches but 7,725sq.m of agricultural land will be retained within the school grounds.

The EIA says the project will have a major visual impact on Għaxaq, introducing urban development to a currently undeveloped site with a strong rural character and sense of openness when viewed from Dawret Ħal Għaxaq.

“The scheme as a whole significantly changes the existing organic context of the urban and rural interface creating a ‘hardness’ to the urban edge changing an essentially rural view to one being more urban in nature,” the EIA says.

Major negative impacts of the project include the change in the landscape when the new school is viewed from Triq il-Ħareb and Dawret Ħal-Għaxaq. A moderate to major impact is also identified in respect of the change to the long-distance view of Ghaxaq from Delimara.

The project will also have negative consequences for ground water recharge, as it will result in the ‘soil sealing’ of a considerable area.

According to the EIA, the land that will be lost is considered to be of low agricultural value; even if “there is the potential for the productivity of the land to be improved through improved irrigation”. Moreover, considering the amount of land which will be lost, and its productivity potential, the impact on agriculture is considered to be of “major significance”. Although the new development will be low-lying, due to “the loss of the mature vegetation, as well as rubble walls and rural structures” the urban edge will become more pronounced and “the transition to the rural area” will become “less pleasant than it is currently”. Of the 58 protected trees found on the site of the new school, only 12 (21%) will be retained. Overall the project will result in the loss of 85 trees, 46 of which are protected. These include the row of Pinus halepensis (Aleppo pine) along the northern boundary of the Scheme site, on the interface with Dawret Ħal-Għaxaq. The impact will be somewhat mitigated by the compensatory planting of 720 trees and the implementation of a landscaping scheme. Alien species will also be removed from the site.

Plans for larger school had been shelved

Plans for an even larger school to also accommodate a school run by the Daughters of the Sacred Heart over 72,000sq.m were withdrawn in 2019.

The land was designated for the development of a school in local plans approved in 2006. But the project came back to haunt the Church hierarchy during the Żonqor controversy, when former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat rebutted criticism by Archbishop Charles Scicluna on the proposed development of a private university on a 90,000sq.m site at Żonqor Point, by referring to the Għaxaq school plans.

The Dominicans want the Għaxaq college to be a spacious alternative to Valletta’s St Albert College, which is over 70 years old and lacks sufficient space for lecture rooms, laboratories and facilities for sports and extra-curricular activities. The area would also be more accessible to families in the southern part of the island. The Dominicans say they carried out a “painstaking selection exercise” with the assistance of the Planning Authority’s planning directorate to identify the area, eventually designated in the South Malta Local Plan for the specific purpose of co‐educational schools.