Turning the south into one giant scrapyard

Abstract

The south of Malta is renowned for its large concentration of scrapyards, which blight the landscape as mounds of haphazardly-piled up cars in fields in places like Birżebbuġa (the Wied Żembaq scrapyard is the most notorious), Għaxaq, Mqabba and Ħal Far. The Roc-A-Go facility for end-of-life vehicles destined for scrapping, sited along the Tal-Barrani bypass which meanders between Tarxien and Żejtun, is one such facility. A number of farmers to whom the fields bordering the facility are leased claim that in recent weeks the Roc-A-Go facility owners have approached them and asked that they vacate the land they have been tilling for generations. Has this request been made with the aim of paving the way for the scrapyard to expand to the surrounding fields?