Mepa has no problem with the fact that a private road in Iklin will encroach on the safety buffer zone of the St Michael's Fireworks Factory, because the passage will "not be used regularly".
It is the latest in a series of decisions based on an interpretation of the Explosives Ordinance Act, which stipulates that fireworks factories and roads must be at least 183 metres away from roads and inhabited areas. Under the law, this buffer zone applies to roads that are "used regularly".
The Iklin road, which will serve a recently-built villa overlooking the same valley where the factory stands, encroaches on the 183-metre buffer zone. Nonetheless, being a private road, the passageway is not considered to be in regular use and therefore as falling outside the provisions of the Act.
The government had applied the very same interpretation when the Cabinet had directly intervened in 2001 to bypass the Act, in a situation that would have otherwise brought about the closure of two fireworks factories in Għargħur - one of which exploded last year, killing five people.
Following a similar explosion there a year earlier, the Cabinet had regularised the position of the factories through a memo that rendered the road next to the factories a "private" one, reserved exclusively for "farmers, residents and fireworks factory employees".
The change meant that the road would be used "as irregularly as possible", the Ombudsman had commented when asked to intervene, which means that the factories' position was legal.
Had the situation remained as it was, the Ombudsman had noted, "the authorities responsible for licensing the firework factories... would risk falling foul of the Explosives Ordinance... "
In practice, the redefinition of the road did not make the factories any less hazardous. A woman who was driving past one of the Għargħur factories when it exploded in June last year had a close shave when the roof of her car was ripped off by a flying boulder.
Għargħur residents and farmers suing the government for damages argue precisely that even if the road is used by few people, it still constitutes regular use.
When asked about the Lija case, which emerged last week when the villa's owner started works on the road, a spokesman for Mepa said the authority "is aware that a small part of the private road lies on the periphery of the buffer zone," but added that the road will not be used regularly.
The permit for the road is attached to that for the villa, which was issued in 2003.
Enthusiasts attached to the St Michael's factory are livid at the situation, pointing out that while many protest about the risk posed by a potential explosion, authorities keep allowing the building sprawl to encroach on their buffer zone.
"If Mepa is taking this stand, then we want a declaration from the authority, the AFM and the police that this will not affect our position, legally. If the authorities want to take the responsibility for it, then that's their business," a spokesman for the St Michael's Fireworks Factory, Joe Mangion said.
"This is ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous," he insisted. "They are just doing this to save their skin."
Significantly, industry experts have repeatedly told The Times that the present buffer zone is redundant as it is based on the average amount of explosives stored in fireworks factories when the Act was first introduced in the early 1900s.
Since then the capacity and the potency of the fireworks have increased substantially, in turn pushing further the potential impact range of an explosion. In the case of St Helen's factory, large boulders and other large projectiles where found in nearby villas even 500 metres away from the factory.
New regulations for the industry were recently passed in Parliament but no changes were made to the safety buffer zone. However a commission has been set up to bring the regulations up to date with current practice in this respect.
A recently-built villa in Iklin which will be served by the road in question.