Portomaso residents have filed a judicial protest to force the planning authority to appeal a decision for the building of 46 new bungalows.

The Environment and Planning Appeals Tribunal issued a development permit for the bungalows in an area that was originally precluded from any further development.

The judicial protest was filed by lawyer Ian Spiteri Bailey on behalf of Ingrid Ratcliffe, Anthony Ratcliffe, Victor-Emanuel Agius and Francoise Vanderperre. They also asked the court to temporarily stop the issue of the permit pending the filing of an appeal.

Mepa was duty bound to appeal against the decision

The residents said that although, by law, Mepa was duty bound to appeal against the decision authorising the building of the bungalows, they had “indications” that the development watchdog would not do so “even if Mepa normally exercises this right in similar circumstances”.

The residents claimed that if Mepa failed to exercise its right to appeal, they would suffer damages.

Earlier this week, the Environment and Planning Tribunal overturned a refusal by the Mepa board and allowed the Tumas Group, owners of the luxury complex, to go ahead with the development.

The controversial decision was contrary to one taken last year to refuse the project.

The bungalows and a car park will overlook the lagoon, together covering an area of about 7,500 square metres on what was once a dump site – now covered in vegetation – on the foreshore at the end of Spinola Road, in St Julian’s.

The tribunal upheld an argument by the developers that the local plan superseded a condition that had been laid down when the permit for the Portomaso complex was first given the green light in 1995. A clause had specified that there would be no further development or extensions to the project.

Mepa argued that no further development should be allowed on site because the earlier extensions given to the original permit had filled “the committed footprint”.

The owners, the Fenech family, argued that the bungalows would complement and add value to the rest of the project.