Residents and their quality of life should be the central aim of any strategy for the Cottonera area, Alternattiva Demokratika’s spokesman on urban environment, James Gabarretta said.
He said one wondered why the government felt the need to set up another new entity (The Cottonera Foundation) led by a Labour MP.
Wouldn’t the Cottoners regional council have been the ideal institution for drawing up an action plan for the region, he asked, also noting that there was a local plan for the same area, the Grand Harbour local plan.
The strategy, Mr Gabarretta said, did not consider important current challenges such as sustainable mobility, climate change and sustainability. It could have been an impetus to transform the region to a zero-carbon region.
“Serious planning for a zero-carbon region encourages innovation, micro industries and social, environmental and cultural rejuvination.”
Mr Gabarretta said that, for AD, residents were the most important stakeholders. The strategy gave the impression that the aim was to commercialise the area, including wooded zones.
“The challenges of gentrification is not mentioned anywhere in the document. This is a big failure because bad planning…
