AD is satisfied with Xemxija report

Today's Malta Independent threw the spotlight on Malta's Green Party (Alternattiva Demokratika) chairman Dr. Harry Vassallo's who held a press conference in Xemxija (North West Malta).

The article can be read in full here, and the first few paragraphs are below:

Addressing a press conference held at the Xemxija end of the St Paul’s Bay by-pass, Alternattiva Demokratika chairman Harry Vassallo said he had been pleasantly surprised by the frankness and thoroughness of the report produced by the Board of Inquiry appointed to investigate the mudslide which occurred at Xemxija last January.

“We have awaited such an official announcement for many years and had given up hope that anything of the sort would ever be made,” said Dr Vassallo. “None of the contents of the report are a surprise, except for the specific statistics of the case in question. but to have them so clearly articulated at long last is a cause for celebration,” he said.

“It is now no longer an allegation made by us that Mepa (Malta Enviroment & Planning Authority) has been weak with the strong and strong with the weak. The facts are there for all to see.” “Mepa has failed to use the powers of enforcement at its disposal to such an extent that it can justifiably be considered to have invited further infringements and thereby became responsible for the irremediable damage caused over many years,” Dr Vassallo continued.

“The fact that one developer accumulated 82 enforcement and stop notices and blissfully ignored them for years is bad enough. That Mepa was not moved to do something about such a situation until a near catastrophe occurred is worse. "

Personal Comments: As an estate agent I cannot but keep on stressing that this introverse scrutiny by the people involved in the building industry and the country's rulers, is of maximum importance and is ultimately safeguarding everyone's property investment on the island, both foreign and local.