It took less than seven weeks after the general election for the Labour government’s vision of paradise to begin to change. After spending months and considerable public resources promoting its plan to transform Manoel Island into a national park, the government-appointed Planning Authority has now sanctioned a large private padel complex on the same public land.
Yesterday, the Planning Authority approved an application submitted by Gżira United FC president Sharlon Pace to sanction 20 padel courts that had already been built illegally at the former Nicholl Ground. The permit also authorises the construction of another ten courts across a site covering approximately 6,700 square metres. The courts are operated as a private commercial venture rather than as an open public park.
The government paid €43 million to recover Manoel Island from MIDI, only for its own Planning Authority to regularise another private commercial development on the land weeks later. The national park has not even been designed, yet private interests are already being allowed to establish legal and commercial claims over parts of it.
The development was constructed before the necessary planning permit had been issued. Although the Authority initially halted the works, its board subsequently regularised the illegal development by 11 votes to one. Labour’s Gżira mayor, Neville Chetcuti, voted in favour, while the only opposing vote came from the NGO representative on the board.
The board even rejected calls to include a condition stating that the permit would not prejudice the government’s future master plan for Manoel Island or strengthen the football club’s future claims over the site.
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