Let’s take a break from the handsome men for a while

(and no, I don’t mean Johnny tal-Kruz Xipp)

Is a project wrong because it is wrong, or is it wrong because the land belongs to an MP? I’m not asking because I want a philosophical discussion while we’re all supposed to be at work.

No. I ask because I wonder sometimes about the way the Labour Party rationalises things (“If it can win us some votes, we’ll do it.”). So while they’re making all that fuss about a putative nightclub down at Mistra Bay, here’s what is happening up on Mistra ridge. An environmental planning statement has been released for a proposed 1,000 flats, 4,500 square metres of retail area, parking for 2,202 cars, and a 13-storey tower on the site of the former Mistra Village.

Mistra Village was a low-rise complex landscaped into the area and set back from the edge of the ridge. Then bit by bit, hideous blocks of apartments began to creep up and over the ridge and now we have this proposal.

The environmental planning statement says that this ridge – called the Bajda Ridge – is designated as an area of high landscape value (though I would say it’s already quite late for that), and that the development will be highly detrimental to this. “The changes to the views from most areas are of minor significance, but the changes from Mistra Bay are considered to be of major significance,” the statement says.

Apparently, a 19-storey tower had been proposed earlier, but there was a ‘public outcry’. Really? Sorry, but I hadn’t noticed. It can’t have been as great as the outcry about the nightclub down in the bay, but maybe that’s because the land isn’t owned by an MP. Now a ‘boomerang’ shaped building that steps up from six to 13 storeys and back down to six is being proposed instead.

So maybe this is the one we should be talking about, and asking ourselves why the Labour Party hasn’t said anything yet.