Mepa demands urgent criminal action over Xemxija works

The Malta Environment and Planning Authority has asked the police to institute "urgent criminal proceedings" against a leading developer who it says failed to comply with an order to rehabilitate an illegally-excavated site in Xemxija.

The Times reported earlier this week that the area had not been rehabilitated - four months after Mepa had issued the order. Nor had the developers, Polidano Brothers, submitted a method statement saying how they intend to return the site to its original state.

Other people may also be prosecuted since parts of the area are co-owned. However, the authority would not give any names for the time being.

Mepa ordered the developer last April to rehabilitate the site following an inquiry led by the authority's own audit officer. In its conclusions the audit report lambasted Mepa for the way it allowed the developer to do as he please at the site, which was excavated illegally over a stretch of about six years.

The excavations made the area unstable and a mudslide in January left a neighbouring house perilously jutting out after a section of earth beneath its foundations caved in.

Mepa said yesterday work, including excavations, had resumed on a part of the site that is also covered by an enforcement notice issued in 2004. This section of the site was originally covered by a permit. However, after the inquiry, the enforcement notice was extended to the entire area.

"Development works have been stopped," Mepa said yesterday, adding that it will ensure that no works are carried out on any plot in the area, other than those approved in a method statement aimed at stabilising the site.

The news comes in the wake of police investigations, requested by Mepa, into the dumping of construction waste at sea by the same developer.

Mepa says the activity was not covered by a permit. However, the developer denied this on Wednesday insisting that the dumping operation was "completely legitimate".

Attempts to contact Polidano Brothers on the latest development were unsuccessful.