Prime Minister seeks conservation order for Ta' Hagrat temple

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat is seeking “the best legal option” to revoke the sanctioned development that is threatening the unique UNESCO World Heritage status of the Ta’ Hagrat Neolithic temple in Mgarr.

A senior spokesman for the Office of the Prime Minister yesterday confirmed the decision for the planning permit’s imminent revocation, over public outrage on the threat of an apartment complex just metres away from the temple.

Earlier in the week, Labour deputy leader for party affairs Toni Abela expressed his shock at MEPA’s decision, which was then followed by a parliamentary motion filed by the Nationalist Party calling on the government to expropriate the plot of land in question.

The prime minister’s spokesman said the decision by the Malta Environment and Planning Authority had been based on a U-turn by the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage, which lifted its objections to the development, some time after the March 2013 elections.

The original application had been recommended for refusal at MEPA in 2008. 

Former environment minister George Pullicino has denied claims that the boundaries for development in the Ta’ Hagrat buffer zone had been changed under a Nationalist administration.

Pullicino said that the development boundaries applicable today are the same as the boundaries approved back in 1989 in parliament tied to the Temporary Provision Schemes (TPS).

The Prime Minister’s spokesperson said that two options being considered were issuing an emergency conservation order, or a discontinuance order.

The Opposition has demanded that the government expropriates the land on which the apartments are being built, on the grounds that there is a public purpose to safeguard national heritage, against appropriate compensation.

But the spokesperson for the OPM said that the area in question had not been excluded from a rationalisation exercise carried out in 2006, when Malta’s development boundaries were increased and new pockets of land were included for development purposes.

On Thursday, PN deputy leader Mario de Marco, flanked by MP Ryan Callus, who sits on the MEPA board, announced that they would filing a parliamentary motion to expropriate the plot that had been given a permit.

The motion called on the government to honour its responsibilities under the UNESCO Convention of World Heritage in 1972, and to expropriate the land in question against compensation to its owners. “In this case there is a clear case of public purpose, to safeguard the identity of the megalithic temples of Ta’ Hagrat for the benefit of present and future generations,” the two MPs said.

Last September, MEPA approved an application ‘to remove existing structure and construct dwelling’ in Triq San Pietru, Mgarr. A number of residents objected to the construction of two-storey residences.

On 6 September 2013, MEPA approved an application to erect semi-basement garages 15 apartments and 1 penthouse in Triq San Pietru, Mgarr. Residents objected to the construction of two-storey residences.

The controversial approval by MEPA of the 96-square-metre dwelling was 10 metres away from the Ta’ Hagrat temples, and had the blessing of the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage. But the same body had initially objected to the development in March.

The Superintendence not only objected to the construction due to its proximity to the World Heritage Site Ta’ Hagrat, but went as far as calling on MEPA to revise development boundaries to safeguard the site. In a strongly worded objection issued on 8 March, the Superintendence objected to the “intensive development a few metres away from the Ta’ Hagrat World Heritage Site and well within the buffer zone of the monument”. 

UNESCO had communicated the outline of the buffer zone to the Superintendence in 2011. “This urbanisation should not be allowed to spread, and if necessary, a review of existing development boundaries in the area should be carried out in view of the UNESCO buffer zone,” the Superintendence argued.

But after a meeting with Heritage Malta and MEPA held in May, the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage issued its clearance for the development, after plans were changed to address some of its concerns. In its letter, the Superintendence still noted that the development will take place in an archeologically sensitive area “located 10 metres away from the Ta’ Hagrat temples”.

But the Superintendence justified its clearance for the development, citing new plans presented by the developer limiting construction to the development zone, and the removal of the originally proposed swimming pool and driveway. It also noted that no rock cutting was to take place on the sensitive site.

The case officer report still called on the Environment Planning Commission to refuse this development, since part encroached on an Outside Development Zone.