Wednesday, 15, March, 2023, in a Press Release, Arnold Cassola, Independent Candidate, states the following :
” The illegal works in Fomm ir-Riħ have been slammed by the Superintence for Cultural Heritage.
The developer, Frances Gatt, has not only erected various walls on this site, which have resulted in the enclosure of land in an otherwise open area and are out of context, but he has even raised the height of the walls, thus exacerbating the visual impact rather than reducing and mitigating it.
The SCH has insisted that the sanctioning of the increase in height of the wall is thus unacceptable from a cultural heritage point of view.
Moreover, the walls proposed for sanctioning by the applicant do not follow the lie of the land and the terrain contours. These unauthorised works have affected adversely the topography and have given rise to high walls that could have otherwise been kept low.
The SCH has defined as totally unacceptable that in such a particular and important landscape, that was never characterised by intensive arable farming and rubble walling, the works gives rise to a boundary wall which is more than 6m high as it is built above a third-party wall on a lower level.
The Superintendence further points out that the wall proposed for sanctioning is in recycled worked franka stone constructed as random ashlar and not as a traditional rubble wall. This runs counter to best- trade practices, policies and subsidiary legislation regulating rubble walling.
In conclusion, the Superintendence disagrees completely with the appellant in para. 4.2.1 wherein the walls are described as irregularly shaped, rough dressed stone, when this is clearly not the case.”
Arnold Cassola stated: “One can no longer tollerate the cowboys who have been running roughshod over our natural and historical heritage. Such abusive development has not only got to stop but the site at Fomm ir-Riħ should be returned to its original pristine condition”.