Planning board not alien to polemic

The planning board that approved the permit for the extension of the controversial Baħrija farmhouse was the same one that resigned en masse just nine days before last year's general election.

The board had resigned after Mepa auditor Joe Falzon accused them of gross irregularities when they approved a permit for the construction of a supermarket in an outside development zone in Safi.

The former chairman of the board, architect Philip Azzopardi, yesterday refused to comment on yet another accusation by Mr Falzon that the board acted outside the law when it approved the extension to a farmhouse outside development zones in Baħrija in September 2007.

Mr Falzon said the DCC board had acted outside the law when it approved the extension because an additional screening process by the Environmental Protection Department was completely ignored despite being required by law.

The controversy has led to the resignation of Nationalist Party president Victor Scerri, who owns the house and who stepped down to be able to defend himself better. He has always denied any wrongdoing and said that if the permit was issued irregularly it was the planning authority's fault and not his.

In his reaction to Mr Falzon's observations, Mepa chairman Austin Walker said the authority had already informed the applicant that it intended withdrawing the last permit because it was issued erronously.

The other DCC board members at the time were Carmel J. Portelli, Anthony Mifsud, Charles Micallef St John, Charles Calleja and Christopher Spiteri.

In another controversial decision in November 2007, the same board had also approved the outline development permit for an open air disco in Mistra on land belonging to Nationalist MP Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando.

On the Mistra case, Mr Azzopardi and Mr Mifsud are facing criminal proceedings in court accused of having had private interests in the adjudication process of the application.

The auditor said that no action could be taken against the DCC board members who approved the Baħrija permit because they had since been replaced.

The planning process for this farmhouse dragged on for nine years and the development was given the go ahead in four permits between 2000 and 2008. In the end, Dr Scerri was allowed to knock down the original farmhouse and build another one, a third larger than the original.

The auditor's accusing finger did not stop with the DCC board that approved the last permit in a series of four in the Baħrija case.

The first outline development permit was approved in August 2002 despite negative recommendations by the case officer and subsequently granted a full development permit in January 2003. In both instances the board ignored all of Mepa's environmental policy and approved site plans that did not take into account the sloping nature of the site in question.

According to Mepa's annual reports, the DCC board that approved both the applications was chaired by architect Catherine Galea. Contacted yesterday Ms Galea would not comment.

"I will be meeting the board secretary tomorrow (today) to give me the relevant information so that I can confirm that I was chairman of the board when the first permit was issued. I will only be in a position to answer your question when I get this information," she said when asked for her reaction to the auditor's report.

The other DCC board members at the time were Mariella Axisa, Andrew Ellul, Philip Mifsud, now a Nationalist MP, Anthony Mifsud, Conrad Thake and Ray Bondin.

The controversy came to a head on Wednesday when the government published the auditor's report, 24 hours after Dr Scerri resigned his political post.

Meanwhile, the Labour Party yesterday said the Prime Minister was obliged to publicly take a stand on the matter after the auditor's report accused the authority of damaging the environment.

It said the board that took the "scandalous" decision was appointed by Lawrence Gonzi.

"Lawrence Gonzi should declare whether he agrees with the auditor's report and, if yes, who would be shouldering political responsibility for all that happened," Labour environment spokesman Leo Brincat and planning spokesman Roderick Galdes said.

ksansone@timesofmalta.com