Galdes omits to say he was absent for MEPA vote against Caqnu development

Labour MP Roderick Galdes was absent on sick leave when the board of The Malta Planning and Environment Authority (MEPA), of which he is the PL representative, unanimously turned down an application by developer Charles Polidano to knock down a Balzan townhouse development.

This detail was omitted by Galdes when contacted by MaltaToday last week.

MEPA last week saidthe vote against the project had been unanimous. MaltaToday asked Galdes why he had voted against the development when in March 2009 he voted in favour of the permit for 40 apartments and an underground car park.

In his email reply, Galdes simply gave four reasons why he was against the latest application, omitting the fact that he actually never voted against it as he was sick.

It was only after the article had been published that MaltaToday learned about Galdes’s absence from the meeting.

When asked whether he had actually voted against the project, Galdes replied that although he was against the project, he could not attend the board meeting because he had a fever and had been on sick leave for the whole week.

When reminded that the question referred to his vote and not his opinion on the project, Galdes replied that he had assumed that MaltaToday knew that he was absent from the meeting.

In his original reply, Galdes justified his change of heart on the project, saying he had voted in favour of the 40-apartment development last March, because it included the restoration of the townhouse, the pigeon loft and the internal garden while the latest application proposed the demolition of the townhouse.

“The present proposal was different from the previous one as it involved the demolition of a historical building, something with which I disagree in principle,” Galdes said.