'Dangerous and undemocratic': Għarb fireworks factory approval slammed

Planning Authority board members who approved plans to build a fireworks factory in Għarb will have blood on their hands should tragedy strike the Gozitan village once again, an environmental activist group has warned. Authorities gave the go-ahead for the new factory, which will be located just 300 metres from a historic chapel, earlier this week. The approval comes despite Għarb residents having voted in 2010 to ban any further fireworks plants in their village. Għarb valley already hosts a number of such factories, with two fatal explosions in 2010 and 2012 having shocked the nation. In a statement issued on Monday, eNGO Flimkien Għal Ambjent Aħjar expressed incredulity that that PA had ridden roughshod over residents’ wishes. It noted that the same authority which had, in 2009, refused a permit for a 20-square metre agricultural store now had no objection to building a 5,000 square metre fireworks factory on the same site – land which, the FAA added, was designated as a Special Area of Conservation and therefore of particular environmental value. “This was also disregarded by the Planning Authority,” the eNGO said. It urged the University of Malta’s chemistry department to...