A businesswoman who claims to have been kept in the dark over pending plans to expropriate her restaurant to make way for the new Kappara flyover has called on the authorities to end years of uncertainty.
Manon Calleja, who owns The Cottage restaurant, has filed a judicial protest demanding to know why a tender for the multi-million euro project was issued before discussion on her compensation deal had even started.
Because of the situation we’ve been stuck for years
The expropriation of the property, which she leased to run her business, had been on the cards for years but the official process never started.
Because of the uncertainty, Ms Calleja said her family had been unable to sell the business or make any plans to invest in it.
“Nobody ever approached us to tell us what’s happening. We’ve been stuck for years,” she told Times of Malta.
“Nobody is interested in buying a business that will be demolished,” she said, pointing out that her family was not objecting to the project – they just wanted closure to be able to move on.
For this reason, Ms Calleja and her sons, Ryan and Troy, filed the judicial protect against the Lands Commissioner and the Transport Malta chairman.
They called on them to liquidate and pay them for damages they sustained, and are still sustaining, because of the upcoming project, and pay compensation due to them for the eventual land expropriation and, therefore, the restaurant.
In the protest, filed in the First Hall of the Civil Court, the family said they were the owners of The Cottage on the grounds of a valid rent agreement signed by the late Roger Calleja in October 1988. They were the full owners of the restaurant’s goodwill and its contents. The government announced the flyover project in 1993, but so far nothing has materialised. Transport Malta had said several times the project would take place. The media had reported that €25 million in EU funds were allocated to it.
Transport Malta also applied for the demolition of existing buildings, including the restaurant. But the only contact the family had with the authorities was in September 2010 when their property was surveyed. The process of expropriation and liquidation had never started.
Last week, they read in Times of Malta that the tender had been issued and this included the demolition of their restaurant. They were never formally notified about this.
In the protest, signed by lawyer Jan-Karl Farrugia, the family called on the authorities to rectify the situation and held them liable in damages.
The call for tenders for the building of two flyovers at the congested Kappara junction was issued by the government’s department of contracts on September 5.
The project has been in the pipeline for many years and worked upon by previous Road Departments. In 1996, a permit for a proposed flyover was approved but it never materialised. Last year, Transport Malta obtained a planning permit to have two flyovers connecting one side of the Regional Road to the other, while retaining the roundabout. Works are expected to last 18 months.