Change of use

On behalf of the residents of Qui-Si-Sana, especially the families living in and around Les Roches Apartments, I would like to publicly thank Nationalist MP Franco Galea for his support.

Along with families living in the same block of apartments and our immediate neighbours, we have been trying to get round red tape for almost 10 years. The story started when the ground floor shop was turned into a restaurant in May 1995.

Since then we have witnessed licences being reactivated and changed, Mepa, the police and the health authorities ignoring us completely and files going missing.

We got a breakthrough when the Ombudsman investigated and ascertained that some Mepa files referring to the site were not found.

After that, a court-appointed expert issued a damning report against the state of the restaurant. Then Mepa's audit officer corroborated all our contentions and even commented on certain behaviour at Mepa.

To conclude, Mepa's Development Control Commission refused an application for alterations to the restaurant. To further strengthen our case, we also have a court order against the restaurant owner with regard to noise, smells and what we consider to be other hazards. These still exist and yet the restaurant remains open because the police, even if we report the matter on a frequent basis, do not take any action.

Now we are surprised to learn that the Mepa chairman has issued instructions declaring the establishment as being of a commercial nature.

Apparently this occurred because a licence was once active. We, however, contend that the licence is withheld. It seems the decision by the chairman of Mepa was based on what others told him. We can supply him with certain factual information anytime.

Effectively the restaurant has been there for almost 10 years.

Finally, we had enough and brought the case to the attention of Mr Galea who was shocked and mortified at what he saw. He has now called for an investigation and for this we thank him with heartfelt gratitude. We just hope that finally the law prevails and we will live in peace as we used to do in the past.