Residents of the Wied il-Ghasel area in Mosta are calling for the withdrawal of a development permit issued by the Malta Environment and Planning Authority.

The residents said they were denied the right to object because the development site notice was not in place for the legally required period.

Residents recently submitted 24 affidavits to Mepa saying that the development notice for the construction of 24 apartments and 26 garages was removed when the application was made in 2005.

They claimed they only learnt about the development on February 22 when the developer's architects visited their homes to notify them that work was about to begin.

The application for development was originally refused in 2007. It lies in an area listed as a nature reserve within the World Database on Protected Areas managed by the United Nations Environment Programme and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

It is classified as a Category III National Monument, containing a natural or cultural feature of outstanding or unique value because of its inherent rarity. The feature in question is the last standing girna in the heart of a Maltese town.

Harsien Patrimonju Malti (HPM) has called on Mepa to intervene by means of an Emergency Conservation Order and prevent several rural assets from being destroyed.

The organisation said the developer failed to declare the presence of the girna and rubble walls forming an integral part of the protected area.

"Considering the building technique and its correlation with its immediate surroundings, moving the structure would render a reconstruction a worthless replica," the organisation said.

Environmental group Flimkien ghal Ambjent Ahjar is also supporting the residents opposing the development. FAA said that Mepa's directorate consistently recommended refusal, which was overturned by the Development Control Commission boards with no written justification as required by the Development Planning Act.