Mepa adamant not to tolerate the illegal use of protected land

The planning authority board yesterday threw out five requests to sanction extensions to controversial boathouses at protected Dwejra Bay in Gozo.

The board, headed by chairman Austin Walker, had nine pending applications before it yesterday morning – four of which had been postponed from another hearing in April 2008.

Before the first case was presented, Mr Walker reiterated the position taken by the board last year and pointed out that it was “not looking favourably” at sanctioning illegalities in protected or outside scheme areas.

In April last year, the board had turned down 13 similar applications and postponed four, much to the delight of environmental non-governmental organisations that had called for their refusal.

Out of the nine applications heard yesterday, two were new and three were requests to reconsider a previous refusal to sanction.

The board deferred the consideration of three applications on the request of the owners and gave the go-ahead for a change of use from a summer residence to a diving shop after the planning directorate confirmed the place had been built before 1957 and the change of use was in line with the Dwejra action plan’s objectives.

The remaining five cases were quickly heard and unanimously turned down.

According to planning policies, any boathouse built before or altered after 1965 requires sanctioning and the benchmark used are aerial photos taken in 1957 and site surveys carried out in 1968.

In February 2008, a number of environmental groups had pro-tested loudly against the approval of around 20 applications to sanction illegal structures in Dwejra. Back then, the authority had defended its decision, saying it formed part of a process that went back to 2005 called the Dwejra Heritage Park Action Plan. This argument was often brought up yesterday by architects and lawyers representing the boathouse owners, who pointed out that the illegal buildings fell in line with the Dwejra action plan.

However, Mr Walker argued against sanctioning the illegality. “This type of decision is not in line with the special area of conservation, scheduled areas and goes against the public interest – especially for Dwejra which is highly ecologically sensitive,” he said. Later in a statement, the planning authority said the board “sent out a clear message” that it would not tolerate the illegal abuse of land especially if it was protected. Also, the planning authority’s extensive reform “prohibits the submission of a planning application to regularise illegal development in an outside development zone or a protected area carried out after May 2008,” it added.

The planning authority’s decision was welcomed by Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar. It, however, regretted that decisions on three of the cases were postponed as “it means that this sad episode in environmental management drags on”.

“The beauty of the Dwejra landscape with its unique geological and ecological features has already been impacted by the eyesore visitor centre-cum restaurant, with its platform and large beams dominating the view down into Dwejra,” the organisation said. The sooner action was taken to remove the Dwejra illegalities, the better it would be both for Dwejra’s ecology and environment and also for the benefit of the Gozitan tourism industry.