Decision on Gharghur fireworks factory postponed

The decision on the application will be taken after the approval of a controversial draft policy, prepared by the Malta Pyrotechnics Association’s lawyer Michael Falzon – also Labour MP – before he was appointed parliamentary secretary responsible for planning in March.

Falzon was appointed as a consultant to the Malta Environment and Planning Authority after Labour’s election to power in 2013.

A legal notice issued last year allowed developers the option to ask for a postponement of decisions on applications that were likely to be affected by new policies.

The St Bartholemew’s fireworks factory application proposes the erection of two 18-square-metre stores, three 35-square-metre workshops, three 14-square-metre workshops, one 21-square-metre mixing room and five 2-metre high blast walls.

The site of the development lies on the Madliena side of Wied id-Dis, 180 metres from the Swieqi residential area, which is being proposed for scheduling as a Grade 2 Area of Ecological Importance. The Environment Protection Directorate described the site as rich in vegetation associated with the presence of nearby carob trees.

An ecological report presented by the applicants states that the area is characterised by very little soil, and suggests that the grass in the area constitutes a severe fire hazard due to its proximity to the existing fireworks factory plant.

But the MEPA case officer still called for the refusal of the application, both for ecological reasons and for its deleterious impact on Swieqi residents. 

The first draft of a policy on fireworks, drafted by a committee chaired by Falzon, bans new fireworks factories in Grade 1 and Grade 2 scheduled areas. But no such limits are imposed on extensions of existing fireworks factories. If the policy is approved, similar applications will first require the prior approval of an ad hoc committee appointed by the minister before being processed by MEPA.