St Julians residents say complaint to Mepa fell on deaf ears

Over 280 St Julians residents yesterday filed a judicial protest claiming that development works being carried out in the locality were in violation of the permit conditions.

The residents filed the protest against the Malta Environmental and Planning Authority (Mepa), its chairman Andrew Calleja, in his personal capacity, and Omar Mizzi, as a Mepa enforcement officer and in his personal capacity.

The 287 residents told the First Hall of the Civil Court they all resided in St Julians near the area known as Pender Place, which area was now to be developed into Pender Gardens.

Last February Mepa's board had approved an application for excavation works at this site, but had imposed a number of conditions for the works. The development had to include a temporary roundabout and other traffic management measures including the relocation of the bus terminus. The developer also had to submit monitoring programmes to Mepa within one month from commencement of works so as to measure noise and vibration levels. An operational management consultant had to be engaged to ensure that the monitoring was fully carried out.

However, the residents said, these conditions had not been observed and the excavation works being carried out were illegal and in violation of the permit conditions.

Although the permit conditions had been flagrantly breached and this had been brought to the attention of both Mr Calleja and Mr Mizzi, no action had been taken by them against the developer.

The residents concluded their protest by calling upon the authorities to enforce the permit conditions and issue enforcement and stop notices. They also held Mepa, Mr Calleja and Mr Mizzi responsible for the damages they had sustained.

The protest was signed by lawyers Ian Refalo and Mark Refalo.