Construction tycoons Charles and Paul Polidano face 55 active enforcement notices in their name for environmental abuses going back almost 20 years, according to the planning authority.

The infringements, which span between 1994 and last year, cover more than 35 different sites around Malta, including six hard stone quarries, some of which were the site of illegal dumping.

The Polidano Group, which has an estimated turnover in excess of €40 million, has a track record of illegal development. It has been slapped with many more enforcement notices; however, 55 remain pending.

Besides documented cases of repeated illegal development at the group’s headquarters in Hal Farrug or the flagship Monte Kristo estates, which has four active enforcement notices, including an illegal car park over a huge tract of land, the list includes a villa in Safi, built illegally in 2002 outside development zones.

The enforcement status of that is “pending at enforcement officer”. Other enforcement notices are held up due to appeals.

There are also quirks, which stem from the group’s wide portfolio, such as an enforcement notice in the name of Charles, also known as ic-Caqnu, on the Argentinean Steakhouse of St Paul’s Bay. According to Mepa’s records, the building was meant to be a “games room” but was turned into a restaurant without the necessary permits.

Even the scale varies considerably. From relatively small infringements, such as the illegal removal and dumping of soil in Mqabba in 2005, to outright illegal building, such as a large building in Hal Farrug in 2004 that is two storeys higher than approved plans.

The list was collated by the Malta Environment and Planning Authority following a request by The Sunday Times, which last week revealed that illegal works continued at the developers’ headquarters in Hal Farrug.

A few days before the General Election, the developers re-started works on an illegal extension of their property despite having been shut down by Mepa in September.

Back in September, The Times had reported on the illegal works which saw the developers extend their property illegally at the back of the Polidano group headquarters and begin to develop what looks like a huge warehouse, spread over some 5,000 square metres of land.

The authority had stopped the works, sealed off the place and recommended criminal action. However, after some months the authority agreed to allow the developers back in to be able to access their machinery. But they used this access to carry on with illegal works.

Police last week announced that they had taken action.

Mepa has since stopped the works again.

The brothers have been at the centre of controversy over environmental abuses for best part of 20 years, during which they were the target of at least two major inquiry reports, which both lambasted Mepa for the way it handled the developers.

One of the inquiries had been triggered by a mudslide in Xemxija where the Polidanos were carrying out illegal excavations. Mepa’s former auditor Joe Falzon had held the authority indirectly responsible for the incident, which could have ended in tragedy after a house adjacent to the works, was left jutting in mid air when part of the earth beneath its foundations gave way. Mr Falzon had accused the authority of being “impotent” with big developers.

mmicallef@timesofmalta.com

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