Ramblers resort to court

The Ramblers' Association has filed a judicial protest calling on the planning authority to stop construction works and revoke the permit for a farmhouse on the Baħrija site belonging to former Nationalist Party president Victor Scerri.

In the protest, the association said the property in Wied tal-Marġa, limits of Baħrija, was on a site of ecological and scientific importance, a special area of conservation and outside a development zone.

Even though the law limited development in the valley, a designated Natura 2000 site, over the years the Malta Environment and Planning Authority had granted a number of permits for construction on Dr Scerri's property, the Ramblers said. Of the four permits issued, the first two were no longer valid because five years had passed since their issue, they argued. The third permit did not allow any building works because it was only an amendment to a clause in the second permit regarding limitations on demolition. The fact that the third permit had been issued to amend the second did not mean the second permit's validity had been extended. Mepa, therefore, should not allow further work to take place on the site, the association said.

The fourth permit was revoked last August, it noted.

The works also breached the conditions laid down in the restoration method statement, which Mepa, by duty, had to make sure the applicant followed.

But instead of stopping the works, Mepa had allowed them to go ahead, the Ramblers claimed.

Also, the approved plans were incomplete and lacked important details such as the exact position of the cesspit. While the plans stated that the site was flat, it was in fact uneven.

This had been pointed out in June by Mepa's legal advisor, who had said the applicant should submit an application for an amendment and stop the works in the meantime.

But even this advice had been ignored, the association said.

Even though the permit had been approved on a misrepresentation, it could be revoked for fraud, under article 39A of the Planning Act.

But Mepa chairman Austin Walker had declared there was no need for a revocation in a letter dated December 18. The association called on Mepa to immediately stop the works and revoke the permit.