Lija council asks Mepa to revoke permits near Belvedere

Lija mayor Ian Castaldi Paris yesterday made yet another attempt in his lobbying the Malta Environment and Planning Authority (Mepa) so that today it revokes the development permit for the contentious apartment block near the town's iconic belvedere along Transfiguration Avenue leading to the parish church.

Speaking at a press conference near the site currently being demolished, Dr Castaldi Paris said he expected Mepa to go by its decision in July to schedule the area surrounding the belvedere with a revocation of two permits for apartment complexes higher than two floors on the road leading from the belvedere to the town centre.

Mepa had originally approved both projects in spite of protests by the council and the residents, particularly in connection with the development closest to the belvedere.

But since Austin Walker took over as the new Mepa chairman, the authority seems to have had a change of heart when it scheduled the avenue - a decision that effectively runs against both developments.

Technically, both permits remained valid which is why the authority is meeting today to decide whether to revoke them.

"I expect the authority to be consistent with the decision it had taken to schedule the area," the mayor said, pointing out that the council would be filing a court case should the authority make a different decision.

The council would not be preventing the developers from going ahead with their work but it would keep fighting the decision with all the legal means possible, he insisted.

Asked about the involvement of Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera who called at the local council last Friday in connection with the development, Dr Castaldi Paris played down the incident.

"The magistrate bought on plan a third-floor apartment in the block and she was merely questioning why the council was insisting on having a warden on site. She didn't abuse her position in any way and behaved like any other citizen... after I explained why we were insisting on having a warden, she understood and accepted our terms," he said.

The magistrate's presence is being looked into by the Commission for the Administration of Justice, which acts as the judiciary's ethics committee.

The mayor's version, however, jars somewhat with the original account he gave to TVM News, when he said the magistrate had threatened she would not leave the council unless she got a go ahead for the works to continue.

He reiterated that version of events insisting there is no contradiction. The magistrate - who was acting on a power of attorney on behalf of a Gozitan who is behind the development - insisted that the council allows heavy vehicles to work on the site but when the mayor explained that the council had safety concerns and wanted a warden at the site for this reason, the magistrate understood "and in fact left with the permit", he said.

The local plan for the area, approved last year, curiously excludes from the village core the road leading from the belvedere to the parish church and specifically highlights the zone for three storeys and penthouse, which led the authority to approve the permits.

The revocation could cost the authority thousands of euros in compensation to the developer.