Villa Bologna decision: AD calls for more effort to protect open spaces

Alternattiva Demokratika Attard Local Councillor Ralph Cassar said that the decision about increasing the road width around the Villa Bologna gardens and restricting the height of buildings to two storeys is an improvement on the previous proposal for development in the area. ‘Earlier in February this year I had presented a motion for Attard Local Council to challenge the validity of the Central Local Plan, unfortunately this motion was not approved by the PN majority. However I had then presented another compromise motion concentrating particularly on the Villa Bologna case – this time round the Council confirmed it’s position that it preferred an open space instead of more apartments in the area.’

Ralph Cassar said:’In the past years I managed to convince fellow councillors of the need to preserve open spaces, a project to convert a garden behind the Attard Church into a parking area was thankfully abandoned, and an abandoned square in the Attard Housing Estate, again earmarked for a car park was repaired and kept as a square. Over 70 trees were planted in the area looking onto the edge of the urban built up area in the Wied Irmiedi Area and contacts are being made with MEPA with a view to solving the problems related to quarrying and dumping of construction waste in Wied Incita. Attard, like other villages and towns is overdeveloped, each and every area of open space is very precious.’

Carmel Cacopardo AD spokesperson for sustainable development and local government said: “whilst the MEPA decision to restrict development in the buffer area around Villa Bologna is an improvement it does not address the basic issue : that an area indicated for decades (since 1965) as an area to be retained as undeveloped had its designation changed overnight without consultation when the Local Plan for the Area was finalised.”