Mepa reins in owner of illegal horse track

A horse training track built illegally in the Rabat countryside will have to be removed after the planning authority yesterday turned down an application to sanction it.

The Malta Environment and Planning Authority board refused to legalise the track, which measures about 117 square metres, and a hay store in Lunzjata Street, limits of Rabat.

The board also turned down the owner’s application to build five stables with paddocks and ordered him to restore the area to its original state.

In another decision, the board turned down the request of the owner of a Qormi petrol station to sanction illegally built additions to the complex.

The owner of GAF Petrol Station, located on the periphery of the scheme in Luqa Road, will have to downsize the station to come in line with the original permit granted in 2006.

The owner had applied to sanction the construction of a first floor over and above the height permitted for the petrol station, an increase in the building footprint, the construction of structures near the relocated car wash, an underlying basement and the reduction in size of the underground water reservoir.

“The board turned down the sanctioning of extension works to the petrol station because the illegalities on site were resulting in the further intensification of urbanisation in an outside development zone,” a Mepa spokesman said.

“The two decisions continue to highlight the board’s consistent message that outside development zones will be protected from any illegal or proposed development that fall short of its policies,” he said.