Cranes, trucks, high-ups and other vehicles are to be removed from a site in Tal-Balal after the planning authority again refused an application to turn it into a parking area for commercial vehicles.
The case is now in the hands of the authority’s enforcement officers for direct action to be taken.
The site is adjacent to the Liquid Club between San Ġwann and Naxxar, in an area that falls under the responsibility of the Iklin local council, which objected to the application.
There have been a number of applications covering the site in question, with the earliest dating back to 1996.
However, the latest was to sanction its change of use to an open-air parking area for commercial vehicles, and carry out alterations including changing the position of the gate and additional landscaping.
The site is located outside the development zone and covers an area of approximately 744 square metres. It is also subject to an enforcement notice after no permission had been sought to park the commercial vehicles there.
In its decision, the Development Control Commission said the application to sanction its use as an open-air commercial parking area ran counter to the strategic framework of the Structure Plan and the policy guidelines for areas for open storage.
According to these policies, parking heavy goods and commercial vehicles, plant machinery, buses, boats, coaches and trailers is not always possible within the development boundary. The Malta Environment and Planning Authority would consider open storage facilities in land zoned for industry/warehouses, disused quarries and other land designated specifically for open storage in the local plan.
The history of the site dates back to 1996 when an outline-permit application was filed to erect a car park facility at basement level and two floors above street level. The proposal was refused in January 1998.
Subsequently, the owners filed another application for the change of use from a field to a parking area and proposed raising the boundary wall with fencing.
This was refused in December 2000, again at reconsideration stage in February 2002 and at an appeal stage in September 2003.
In the meantime, an enforcement notice was issued against the site’s owner for building a boundary wall and changing use of the land for parking vehicles.