Mepa has defended the development being carried out by the government’s Foundation for Tomorrow’s Schools in an outside development zone at Mosta.

The planning authority said in a statement yesterday the foundation had not breached its instructions to stop work on the site.

The case was exposed by Times of Malta earlier this month when it showed heavy machinery at work in an ODZ area opposite the government school at Żokrija in Mosta.

This newspaper published the story only after the authority had sent its enforcement officer to the site.

On January 31, the authority said that it had stopped unpermitted works on an access passageway and gate. But yesterday Mepa stressed it had not stopped the foundation from proceeding with other work.

The authority said works on the boundary wall and the infilling of the gap between the rock face and the wall, including its landscaping, were being allowed to carry on since these works were a continuation of two valid planning permits.

Works witnessed on site last week did not match this description. At the time, a press conference was held on site, in which Opposition spokesman Ryan Callus and Mosta mayor Shirley Farrugia spoke on behalf of residents who said their complaints about work in the field had fallen on deaf ears.

They said the fact that work was being done by the government was “scandalous”.

The FTS had insisted it was removing “illegally dumped material” on the site, which turned out to be debris from the construction of its school located opposite the field. It had been finished three years earlier, according to Dr Farrugia.

The government foundation insisted it was only restoring the field for agricultural use as part of the school’s curriculum, and no permit was necessary.

When Mepa answered questions from this newspaper before the story was published, it said that while the removal of debris did not require a permit, “it resulted” that the work being done was for a proposed access passageway and a gate to a field.

“While Mepa has permitted the use of the access created... for the removal of debris and inert material, it has stopped the current work and will monitor the site to ensure no further works, in connection with the planning application, are carried out prior to the issuance of a development permit,” a spokesman had told Times of Malta.

The FTS applied for the permit after this newspaper exposed the issue.