The committee against the proposed Sant'Antnin recycling plant yesterday filed a judicial protest against the chairman of the Malta Environment and Planning Authority.

In the protest, filed in the First Hall of the Civil Court, the committee argued that despite the fact that it had objected to the Mepa application for the proposed development at the plant, the planning and environment watchdog's board decided to hear the application today at 10.30 a.m.

The committee said it was only on Monday that it learnt that a date for the hearing had been set. This deprived the committee of the right to make its objections to the voluminous development permission application report.

Apart from the fact that the committee was not given enough time to formalise its complaints, it was denied access to certain files and was only shown the final plans of the development. This was in breach of the principle of equality of arms and placed the committee at a disadvantage.

The committee also objected to the fact that the Mepa board that was to decide on the application in question was the same one that had decided on the development sites and the outline development of the project. This meant that the board that would be considering the full development application would also be deciding on the same issue a third time. It would be more just if the board members were changed.

Lawyer Owen Bonnici signed the protest.