‘Illegal’ Car Park Threatens Qrendi Football Pitch
The future of a long-abandoned football pitch in Qrendi has been thrown into doubt after the parish who owns it decided to rent it out to a private car rental company as a car park.
Residents of Qrendi and the surrounding villages expressed outrage as photos of the football ground filled with Goldcar vehicles popped up on social media.
“How shameful. [Goldcar] should keep their cars inside a garage and not inside a football ground, which should be used by the children of Qrendi,” one man said.
“I suppose it would cost them too much to leave them parked at the airport, right? And car rental business would be slower in these months compared to the summer,” another man said.
A woman called for the football ground to be converted into a recreational space which, after all, is what Qrendi’s late parish priest Dun Raymond Ellul had intended when he allowed the village football club to make use of the land.
Indeed, three years ago, Qrendi FC’s youth nursery made a public plea to the Curia to allow it to make use of this abandoned land once more.
To rub salt into the wounds of residents, it turned out the football ground was being used as a car park illegally.
Moreover, a resident said he had complained about this lack of a permit to Qrendi’s parish priest Fr. Glen Buhagiar, only to be told that the parish needed to make money.
“I contacted the Parish Priest and he acknowledged that he does not have a permit but justified his actions because the Parish will make money, precisely “taqla Lira”,” he said.
“It is unbecoming for the Parish to make an illegal change of use for the property just to make money. It could have at least restored the premises so that the community could once again use the space for sports as we used to do when I was young. Unfortunately, the parish decided to convert it to an illegal car park.”
Goldcar cleared the car park earlier today, but it is as yet unknown as to who was ultimately responsible for the mess-up. Contacted by Lovin Malta, Goldcar said all permit-related questions should be diverted to the Curia – as it is they who own the football ground.
However, a Curia spokesperson insisted GoldCar had taken on the responsibility to get the necessary permit when it struck an agreement with the Qrendi parish.
“The cars which were parked in the ground for a day and a half have been removed following instructions given by the parish priest,” he said.
Questions sent early this afternoon to the Planning Authority remain unanswered as of the time of writing.
What do you make of this whole mess-up?
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