Berlusconi Accused of Rigging Approval for Venice Motorway

Silvio Berlusconi's government has been accused of rigging a key committee to enable a motorway to be built through a Unesco-nominated world heritage site.

The charity Save Europe's Heritage said in a statement issued from London that the Rome government had removed officials who opposed its plans for the Valdastico Sud motorway in the area west of Venice.

A decree authorising the road was signed by Mr Berlusconi in June. But a consortium of mainly Italian environmental and heritage groups is mounting a legal challenge to the measure which will have to be submitted by September.

Save Europe's Heritage said the proposed motorway would run within a few hundred metres of historic villas built in the flat land south of Vicenza, many designed by the 16th-century architect Andrea Palladio.

It said that, in some cases, the effect would be to deter prospective property buyers who would have been willing to restore them.

The regional government has argued that the motorway will, on the contrary, protect such buildings. Giancarlo Galan, the head of the regional administration and a member of Mr Berlusconi's Forza Italia party, welcomed the approval of the project, saying: "All the cars which are blocking up this area will go on to the motorway, which for lengthy stretches will run in a trench and free all the villages from suffocating traffic jams."

The Veneto - the region surrounding Venice - has long suffered from acute traffic congestion and the motorway would take vehicles off one of its most congested roads.

Save Europe's Heritage said that the scheme had been given the go-ahead despite objections from the ministry of culture in Rome and the official local bodies responsible for archaeology and heritage.

It added that "23 out of 36 members of the official environment commission were replaced after they rejected the proposals as being too damaging".

The group said that the new members of the panel approved the proposed route with only minor changes.

Marcus Binney, chairman of Save Europe's Heritage, said: "This is the most flagrant example of disregarding and discarding [environmental assessment] that we have ever come across. It is astounding."

Among the houses affected by the scheme would the celebrated Villa dal Verme near Agugliaro. According to a report published by the group - Unforgivable Assault on a World Heritage Site, by Franziska Bollerey and Axel Fohl - the house would be within 300 metres of the new road.

Mr Binney said that plans should be withdrawn pending an independent assessment.