On November 14 we witnessed yet another nail being driven into a Maltese coffin already peppered with nails.
A permit for the renewal of PA3976/04 was granted (under PA1248/12), ignoring the fact that Mepa’s own audit officer had declared that existing permits were approved contrary to established policy.
However, we have learnt that this means little to Mepa officials.Ignoring the will of the interested citizens, the preservation of access to Maltese cultural heritage and the ever decreasing areas of open green land, members of the Environment and Planning Commission, decided by four votes to one, to give the go-ahead to the developer to build three villas with three swimming pools on white land where no development should have been permitted; on land which is partly ODZ and lies within
the Rabat conservation area. The chairman rejected a request for the proceedings to be carried out in English although all the documentation was in English. At no point were we, two of around 114 registered objectors, invited to contribute before the five-member commission reached a decision.
Although this was supposed to be a public meeting, the proceedings were conducted in sepulchral tones, so quiet that, apart from the voluble and legally valid objections to the proposed renewal raised by architect Carmel Cacopardo on behalf of residents, we could only hear mumbling noises from the panel.
Even the Maltese objectors who filled most of the seating could not fathom what was going on. In fact, the whole ‘hearing’ had a Kafkaesque quality with an added farcical element: the “judges” all sat, being served coffee, while the “supplicants”, applicants or objectors, had to stand, bowing to explain their drawings/requests.
The applications to develop this land began in 1994 when the applicant wanted to build 18 maisonettes with an appropriate number of garages. This was refused. He reapplied in 1998 to build four villas, but this was also refused.
The name of the developer then changed to another individual, who was granted an outline permit in 2004, despite all the irregularities cited by the Mepa audit officer and many objectors.
Thereafter the original applicant immediately resumed his role as developer and submitted a further application, this time to build three villas.
He was granted a full development permit on February 26, 2008, just days before the general election.