Golf course proposed in Attard quarry

The application – which is the first to be presented since the government abandoned plans for a golf course at Xaghra l-Hamra in 2007 – has been presented by Mark Aquilina, who owns the quarries in the area.

“We aim to rehabilitate the area and eventually close down the quarry. It goes without saying that we shall look forward to abiding by all applicable laws and regulations, including environmental ones,” Aquilina told MaltaToday.

He also described the application for this project as being “very much in its initial stage” and expressed his willingness to offer more information in the future.

“We are still waiting for the first response from MEPA,” Aquilina said.

Plans presented by the developers also include an artificial lake with water sports facilities. MaltaToday is informed that the project would require major engineering works to ensure that water contaminated by pesticides would not percolate into the Mean Sea Water aquifer.

The Wied Incita quarries were a major cause of distress for Attard residents, who complained of clouds of dust.

The elusive golf course

The Wied Incita proposal is the fourth private sector proposal for a golf course in Malta, with all three previous proposals failing approval.

In September 2004, The Malta Environment and Planning Authority (MEPA) turned down an application by Angelo Xuereb to develop a golf course in Verdala.  Following this decision, Xuereb applied for a reconsideration, on which MEPA still has to make a decision.

The application for the development of a golf course in Verdala was presented in 1999, although Xuereb’s first application for a nine-hole golf course dates back to 1994. 

MEPA rejected the application for various reasons, including the fact that the Structure Plan policy relevant to golf courses specifically restricts their construction on good quality agricultural land, such as the one in Verdala.

It took MEPA five long years to reject Xuereb’s final application, presented in 1999. “Why wasn’t I told earlier on? MEPA never discouraged me, they just asked me for more studies,” Xuereb afterwards lamented in an interview published in 2005.

An application presented in 1999 by jeweller Louis  Carabott for the development of an 18-hole golf course in Habel Bellu in Zebbug did not make it beyond the application stage and was withdrawn by the Planning Directorate.

Another golf course application presented by John Ellul Vincenti for an 18 hole golf course in Pembroke was rejected in 2002.

Following the rejection of the Verdala golf course, in 2004 MEPA identified a number of sites suitable for gold course development which could be allowed by the structure plan.

The chosen sites were are at Ta’ Zuta (in the Dingli, Siggiewi area), White Rocks (including part of Pembroke), Maghtab, the Mqabba quarry area, the Marsa golf course site (which can be extended), Tal-Gawhar (Safi), Ghajn Melel (Zebbug, Gozo) and Ta’ Cenc.

But in 2005, the government opted for a golf course at Xaghra l-Hamra, a project which was dropped in 2007 after studies showed that the development would not be feasible in the absence of unsustainable real estate development. Another problem for the proposed golf course was its location on the aquifer protection zone, prompting concern that pesticides would have percolated into the fragile water table.

Only last month, MEPA has approved plans to extend the Marsa golf course to an area next to the government’s Ghammieri experimental farm.