Thousands object for the third time to DB project despite lavish PR campaign

Over 4,400 objections have been submitted to the Planning Authority on the proposed City Centre project in St George’s Bay by Silvio Debono’s DB Group.

The Local Councils of Pembroke, Swieqi and St Julian’s, as well as several environmental and cultural NGOs, have also filed their objections.

“DB Group’s project has repeatedly broken records in terms of the number of objections it has attracted. A total of over 14,000 objections were submitted by the public during the three representation periods connected to this application that took place over the past three years,” nine NGOs said in a statement.

They said this showed that people have not been fooled by DB Group’s aggressive public relations campaign. The Shift has fact-checked the statements made by DB Group in the expensive campaign launched and found false and misleading claims about the conclusions of the report by the National Audit Office.

Thousands of new objections filed show “the people have seen through the lies of the DB Group about their project being changed significantly and about having ‘listened’ to the people’s concerns”.

“The truth is that everyone, ranging from residents and Local Councils to business organisations and NGOs, remains opposed to the building of a commercial structure of massive width, height and volume, in a residential area and adjacent to sensitive natural sites.”

The organisations said the authorities could not continue ignoring the wide and sustained opposition to this project. DB Group’s so-called “City Centre” should be categorically refused and “placed in a dustbin of atrocious plans that will never see the light of day”.

The National Audit Office found that the DB Group was given public land in a totally irregular manner, and that disgraced former Minister Konrad Mizzi had tried to actively mislead the investigation.

Moviment Graffitti, Din l-Art Ħelwa, Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar, BirdLife Malta, Bicycle Advocacy Group, Friends of the Earth Malta, The Malta Archaeological Society, Żminijietna – Voice of the Left and Nature Trust called on the authorities to revoke the “illegitimate agreement” with DB Group and return the land to the public.

Deadline for submitting objections closes today. You can submit your objection here.