A letter supporting Partit Demokratiku motion, to reverse a legal notice extending the hunting and trapping hours at Majjistral Park has been sent by Din L-Art Ħelwa to each MP. The Majjistral Board consisting of the (Mellieħa Council, government representatives and the three representatives of the Heritage Parks Federation) who manage the park unanimously, voted against the extension of the hunting times. The reasons were that one could not have visitors and hunters occupying the same space at the same time. Moreover school visits to the park could not take place during those hours, and there was a safety issue which could not be denied.
In a statement on Sunday, the non-governmental organisation said, “Majjistral was the first National Nature and History Park set up by a Maltese government by legal notice. It came on the tail of a movement by speculators to take over this most beautiful part of the country and turn it into a golf course with the usual development to make it commercially viable.”
Din L-Art Ħelwa said, “It had pushed hard for the area to be turned into a national park to be enjoyed by current and future generations.”
Since its inception in 2007, special interest groups that tried to take over the park to the exclusion of others were fought and compromises were made, notably to allow hunting, first up to 9am and then till 10am. The logic was that before that time there would be few visitors who would be endangered by the shooting. But recently, without prior public consultation the hunting hours has been extended to the 12.30 pm on weekdays between September and November and during the spring open season and trapping to 2.30pm.
Din L-Art Ħelwa asked MPs to do the right thing and vote across party lines, for Majjistral Park to be kept open for all visitors, and not handed over to the few, by voting in favour. This was the third time hunters would encroach on public land, having been successful in their previous two attempts.