A planning tribunal has refused a request to sanction an illegal chicken farm among World War II fortifications.

The appeal on the outside development zone site in Żabbar. was filed after a planning commission refused to sanction poultry units and permit the construction of a manure clamp and a five-course boundary wall.

The farm is within a heavy World War II anti-aircraft battery that is still in good condition and “one of the best remaining examples of the last... fortifications in Malta”.

The development was considered an “accretion” to a structure of architectural and historical interest, that “will further fragment it and erode its significance” – making it unacceptable from a heritage point of view.

The poultry breeder had argued he was licensed and did not own any other property where he could continue farming. His family had lived there since World War II and it had always been used as a farm.

However, the planning authority said a Department of Agriculture licence did not give the breeder “carte blanche”; nor did it allow him to extend the farm without permission or ruin the historical structures.