Last Dwejra applications rejected

The planning authority board yesterday turned down the last three applications to sanction illegal works on boathouses in the protected bay of Dwejra, Gozo.

“The planning authority will not tolerate further illegal abuse of land, especially in outside development areas, special areas of conservation and special protected areas,” it said in a statement.

Over the past year, the authority refused to sanction a number of illegalities related to the Dwejra boathouses. Five applications were turned down last week and another 13 were refused in April 2010.

One of the applications refused yesterday belonged to the family of the late Gozo Bishop Nikol Cauchi, the board heard.

This application also included the request to sanction an internal subdivision of a boathouse into two separate units – the other part belonged to another family.

However, planning authority chairman Austin Walker noted that the subdivision was carried out at a time when a planning permit was required and that illegalities were still in place.

During the discussion, board member Judge Giovanni Bonello asked the board whether there was a solution to the problem of subdivision because “no one could be forced to keep a property – they can either sell or divide it”.

The application was refused but not unanimously as Judge Bonello and two board members, Charles Bonnici and Joe Farrugia, voted in favour of sanctioning in this case.

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

In February 2008, around 20 applications to sanction illegal structures in Dwejra were accepted and 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.

Once all the cases are finalised, the authority will take “comprehensive” direct action against the various illegalities. A spokesman for the authority had told The Times that it would have to wait for the statutory 30-day timeframe, during which the applicant could appeal, but once this period was up, enforcement action would be taken.

Meanwhile, in a separate hearing yesterday, the board also refused a request for reconsideration of the upgrading and sanctioning of an existing pig farm which fell within the Ġgantija buffer zone, which was scheduled as an important archaeologically sensitive site last year.

The planning directorate argued that the application encroached upon a scheduled area of archaeological importance and did not meet the policies for agricultural buildings for livestock farming because it was in a residential area.