Mistra case: Architect speaks of pressure for permit to be approved

The Malta Tourism Authority (MTA) had withdrawn its application to upgrade Mistra Bay after the Malta Environment and Planning Authority (MEPA) turned down many of its proposals, a court heard this morning.

MTA had submitted an outline development application to upgrade the bay area but when MEPA rejected three quarters of the application proposal, the MTA withdrew it, architect Alfred Grech testified. Mr Grech was a consultant to the MTA at the time.

This permit had been tied to another application for a disco on land belonging to Nationalist MP Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando.

Mr Grech was testifying in the compilation of evidence in the case against Philip Azzopardi, 57, and Anthony Mifsud, 50, respectively former chairman and a member of the MEPA Development Control Commission, who are alleged to have had private interests in the adjudication process.

Mr Grech said that after submitting the outline development application he had received a call from George Micallef who was a consultant of the MTA at the time, asking him to turn the application into a full development proposal.

He said that Mr Micallef had told him that he was under pressure from certain people to have the application pushed through quickly, but he never asked who these people were.

At a meeting held between architects, their clients and MEPA officials, Mr Grech remembered seeing Dr Pullicino Orlando but he did not know why he was there.

Paul Camilleri, the architect for Dominic Micallef, who was the developer of the proposed disco, told the court that meetings held between the interested parties were nothing unusual.

He said such meetings did not guarantee approval of an application but helped clients direct their applications in the best possible way.

The case continues.