Construction magnate Charles Polidano has written to the Prime Minister apologising for any inconvenience caused by his illegal development and promising to “fully cooperate” with the authorities.

In a letter uncharacteristic of Mr Polidano, which was released by his legal office last night, he said it was “not his intention” to “escalate” the situation by locking his own workers out of his plants yesterday morning.

Mr Polidano – a man renowned for his brash attitude who, in the past, threatened to lay off his entire workforce when faced with planning action – also expressed his “willingness to fully cooperate with the authorities on the matter”.

“In the meantime, I confirm that no works will be undertaken on the site in question and apologise for any inconvenience that might have been caused which was, however, unintended,” he said.

The letter came in the wake of indications he had given to planning authority chief executive Johann Buttigieg that he was considering withdrawing the temporary order he secured from the courts stopping the Malta Environment and Planning Authority from demolishing illegal buildings on his property and resume talks with the development watchdog.

Mr Buttigieg said the breakthrough followed a meeting he had with Mr Polidano, known as iċ-Ċaqnu, yesterday after the regulator’s botched attempt on Thursday evening to demolish a number of illegal structures on 300,000-square metres of land owned by Polidano Brothers in Ħal Farruġ, on the outskirts of Luqa.

About 64,000 square metres of the area is subject to enforcement notices. The entire site consisted of fields, according to aerial images taken in the 1990s.

The Mepa action, which involved soldiers and armed police officers along with numerous trucks and mechanical shovels, was stopped when a court provisionally upheld a request by Polidano Bros.

Mr Buttigieg said that enforcement notices started being issued in 1996. In September last year, Mepa took court action over 14 enforcement notices and the case was still pending.

In the meantime, Mr Polidano racked up more than €20,000 in daily fines.

In what could be deemed as an attempt at retaliation, the head office of Polidano Bros in Ħal-Farruġ remained locked yesterday morning, with workers who reported for work being told to return home.

Although some workers said they had been informed that yesterday was a day of forced leave, Mr Buttigieg said Mr Polidano had assured him the decision to close was taken to allow workers to “calm down” and that Monday would be business as usual.

The day would not be deducted from workers’ leave entitlement, which Mr Polidano confirmed in his letter to the Prime Minister.

Mr Buttigieg said that if Mr Polidano did not insist on the temporary court order, Mepa would give him a week to draw up a report and provide it with a time frame to remove the illegalities.

He said Mepa had “no qualms” about raiding the place again to carry out direct action but it would first wait for the outcome of the court case, that will be heard on December 11.

During the meeting, described as “cordial”, Mr Buttigieg said he informed Mr Polidano and his legal team that Mepa “would not budge on certain issues”.

Among the structures which the enforcement officers had intended to demolish was an illegally built replica of a De Redin watch tower and a three-storey high building used as a cafeteria.

The decision to raid was taken after Mepa enforcement officers went on site earlier this week and found that more development was taking place. In fact, Mr Buttigieg said Mepa had yesterday issued another two enforcement notices on two fresh developments taking place on site.

He said, when asked by Times of Malta, it was a coincidence that Thursday’s action came just two days before a protest in Valletta by various environment groups over illegal and excessive development.

“It was something that had to be done. Mepa had to take the bull by the horns. In recent weeks and months, he has gone out of control,” he said.

A wedding hall area on site had the necessary permits and no Mepa action was directed at it, Mr Buttigieg pointed out.

He said that, according to law, any unauthorised development after 2010 could not be sanctioned and illegalities had to be removed before any talks were undertaken on other buildings deemed as permissible but built without a permit.

He said Mepa was taking illegalities in outside development zone areas seriously and was beefing up enforcement by having 16 officers. Mepa was planning to take direct action at a scrapyard next week.

When contacted, Polidano Bros’ legal adviser, Michael Schiriha, said the company felt it was not prudent to comment and this out of respect to the institutions involved.