Marsaxlokk 274-space car park recommended for approval

The Planning Directorate is recommending the approval of a huge car park lying outside development zones, despite the objections of the Environment and Resources Authority.

A final decision is due to be taken by the Planning Authority’s board on 12 January.

The car park, proposed by the secretariat of minister without portfolio Konrad Mizzi, will be located in an area proposed for scheduling as a buffer zone for an Area of Ecological importance.

It will cater for 274 parking spaces and occupy 10,300 square metres of land – the equivalent of one and a half football pitches – and is meant to address parking needs in view of the pedestrianisation of the Marsaxlokk promenade.  

The site of the new car park is adjacent to an existing football pitch in the immediate vicinity of the promenade.

Various enforcement orders have been issued in the past against the dumping of rubble in this area. The government has justified choosing this site because it is already disturbed.

But the ERA has pointed out that the area is presently degraded simply because unauthorised parking and littering were allowed in the past, and insisted that this should not be considered as “a stepping stone” to turn the remaining agricultural land into a car park.

The planning directorate overruled these objections because two other areas identified in the local plan for the development of car parks cannot be used. This is because the area lying between the primary school and Triq Zejtun has been taken over by residential development, while the area in the vicinity of Maghluq is being kept free from development due to Natura 2000 restrictions. 

The ERA has proposed the use of the area immediately adjacent to the football pitch and insisted that the car park is “unnecessary” and unacceptable from an environmental point of view.