(Adds FAA's reply)
The planning authority yesterday lashed out at what it said were “slanderous” and “completely misleading” statements made by environmental pressure group Flimkien Għal Ambjent Aħjar.
The Malta Environment and Planning Authority took issue with a series of claims made by FAA spokeswoman Astrid Vella concerning Villa Mekrech in Għaxaq.
Mepa last week voted in favour of a proposal to build three blocks of flats, each two storeys high, in land adjacent to the villa’s formal garden.
Some board members have since said they could not vote against the proposal as it had already been granted an outline permit.
FAA has vociferously criticised the decision, with Ms Vella leading the charge. It pointed to instances where Mepa denied developers a permit despite them having an outline permit and claimed the authority had issued a conservation order on all Villa Mekrech just two months before issuing the development permit.
But yesterday Mepa hit back at the FAA in a two-page statement denying some of the FAA’s claims and calling on Ms Vella to refrain from “misinforming the public” when appearing on TV programmes.
The authority said FAA was wrong in saying Villa Mekrech and its gardens were scheduled on August 31. The area had in fact been issued with an Emergency Conservation Order to give experts the time to determine which areas merited scheduling, the authority said.
The NGO was similarly incorrect in saying aerial photos had shown how protected trees had been destroyed. The site only contained three protected trees, with remaining vegetation “only the undergrowth of alien plants”.
These three trees had been uprooted and moved to another site in October 2009, in line with the conditions stipulated in the site’s original 2008 outline permit. Two survived the uprooting, the Mepa statement noted.
With the developer already in possession of an outline permit, board members had been correct in issuing a full development permit, Mepa said.
Jurisprudence had shown how outline permits were legally binding and that the authority could not refuse a full development permit provided it complied with an outline permit.
“The site covered by the... permit measures 569 square metres and does not form part of Villa Mekrech. The formal gardens of Villa Mekrech remain untouched,” the statement noted.
In a reply, FAA said that contrary to Mepa's claim that it issued public statements whenever a planning decision did not go its way, FAA did not comment publicly in instances even where Mepa admitted to its serious shortcomings, such as in a recent Wardija case.
"Instead of arguing whether an Emergency Conservation Order is technically scheduling, Mepa should be explaining why it downgraded the protection of the Villa Mekrech garden, when its heritage experts insisted that any form of development “will entirely destroy the existing garden,” FAA said
It said that Mepa’s statement that the site covered by the permit was beyond the villa's garden was "shockingly untrue", and belied by the authority’s own website shot which showed the garden path, trees and pond within the permit area.
"FAA is shocked by Mepa’s insistence that no trees were destroyed on this site, just as it is disgusted by the failure of its enforcement officers to report the stumps of the destroyed hundred-year old protected olive trees on site.
"Why did the Mepa board refuse to take into account the photographic evidence of destroyed trees presented by FAA during the hearing," it asked.
The board, it said, voted in favour of apermit that the case officer had just asserted “was still in violation of the Local Plan and would inevitably lead to the destruction of the garden”.
FAA said that Mepa justified its stand due to the fact that the applicant could contest the revocation of the abusive permit, resulting in prolonged legal battles or compensation.
"Rather than holding the DCC Board accountable for issuing an abusive outline permit which violated every tenet of the Local Plan and of our local and international sustainable development obligations, Mepa prefers to lose this priceless piece of Malta’s heritage, the value of which Mepa itself said cannot be overstated," FAA said.