The type of gravel that was illegally laid - through a direct order, without a public call for tenders and without the necessary permits - at the picnic area in Ta' Qali is typically used in road construction. Far from improving the area, it is choking the grass and stopping it from growing, the Nationalist Party said Friday.
Worse still, according to an independent report analysing the material dumped in this open space, this road-construction gravel was "deliberately" spread in a way that prevents natural grass growth, with nothing other than fast-growing, aggressive bamboo able to grow through it.
The report the PN referred to was carried out by Momentum.
What was done has caused significant damage to the soil at Ta' Qali and could permanently transform this highly popular picnic area from a green space into a barren zone where nothing grows, the PN said.
The findings of this report show that what happened at Ta' Qali - and which Jason Micallef, Robert Abela's Special Delegate, and the Government have continued to defend - was nothing more than a fiasco from start to finish.
The independent report, announced in recent hours following on-site inspections, did not cost the Maltese public a single cent. This stands in stark contrast to the €310,000 the Government squandered of public funds to import the gravel from Greece and spread it at Ta' Qali, as well as the additional €9,000 spent to engage yet another expert to assess how to fix the mess the Government itself created.
The Government must now immediately publish the report of this landscaping expert, who is being paid €50 per hour, so that the public can see whether this new report reaches the same conclusions - and, if so, what concrete steps the Government intends to take to remedy this fiasco.
Beyond the Government's extensive self-praise and media advertising about open spaces, it appears that families, young people, and all those who used this much-loved open space - one of the few that remain in our country - will have to keep waiting before they can once again see grass flourish in Ta' Qali.
Worse still, according to an independent report analysing the material dumped in this open space, this road-construction gravel was "deliberately" spread in a way that prevents natural grass growth, with nothing other than fast-growing, aggressive bamboo able to grow through it.
The report the PN referred to was carried out by Momentum.
What was done has caused significant damage to the soil at Ta' Qali and could permanently transform this highly popular picnic area from a green space into a barren zone where nothing grows, the PN said.
The findings of this report show that what happened at Ta' Qali - and which Jason Micallef, Robert Abela's Special Delegate, and the Government have continued to defend - was nothing more than a fiasco from start to finish.
The independent report, announced in recent hours following on-site inspections, did not cost the Maltese public a single cent. This stands in stark contrast to the €310,000 the Government squandered of public funds to import the gravel from Greece and spread it at Ta' Qali, as well as the additional €9,000 spent to engage yet another expert to assess how to fix the mess the Government itself created.
The Government must now immediately publish the report of this landscaping expert, who is being paid €50 per hour, so that the public can see whether this new report reaches the same conclusions - and, if so, what concrete steps the Government intends to take to remedy this fiasco.
Beyond the Government's extensive self-praise and media advertising about open spaces, it appears that families, young people, and all those who used this much-loved open space - one of the few that remain in our country - will have to keep waiting before they can once again see grass flourish in Ta' Qali.