An appeal hearing for an outline permit of a Bidnija winery below street level has been briefly put on hold after the applicant’s lawyer, the planning authority’s former CEO, stepped down from the case.

Ian Stafrace, who represented Stephen Galea, informed the Environment and Planning Tribunal, which is hearing the appeal, that he was withdrawing after a number of residents complained during yesterday’s hearing.

“Since this issue has been raised then I will recluse myself but I want to clarify that, when I was CEO of the planning authority, I had nothing to do with the outline permit,” he said. He was replying to complaints that he had headed the authority while an application for a full development permit was being processed. Dr Stafrace pointed out that the appeals tribunal was only discussing the outline permit.

After he notified the tribunal that he was stepping down, it postponed the hearing to August.

The outline development permit for the construction of the winery was initially refused by the planning authority but a planning appeals board had issued the outline permit in 2006. Residents are demanding the revocation of the permit, claiming it was based on wrong information given by the applicant and went against established planning policies.

When I was CEO of the PA I had nothing to do with the outline permit

Lawyer Joanne Vella Cuschieri, representing some of the residents, argued that the appeals board should revoke the outline permit because it did not abide by agriculture policy which states that the applicant had to have two hectares of vineyard holdings within 500 metres.

However, the planning authority’s chief lawyer Anthony Degaetano argued that, according to law, a permit issued by a court or tribunal, such as was the planning appeals board, could not be revoked.

About 30 Bidnija residents had presented a petition to the board of the planning authority urging it not to grant the full development permit.

The authority board is due to start hearing submissions tomorrow.