Mr Justice Raymond C Pace today heard verbal submissions in an appeal lodged after Mepa refused to issue a permit of an application for the construction of a bus depot on land in Zebbug,  for use by Arriva buses.

Last year Raymond Fenech on behalf of Arriva, applied to MEPA for a permit to build the bus depot including bus parking facilities, a bus maintenance shed and a bus washing facility with underground reservoirs on land in Zebbug.

The land was outside a development zone (ODZ).

The Mepa board had refused the permit on the basis that the site was ODZ.

Mr Fenech then appealed to the Mepa Appeals Board but the application was also dismissed and the Mepa board's decision was upheld.

Mr Fenech then took the case before the Court of Appeal on the basis that the decision was based on considerations which had not been raised previously and which had not been debated by either board.

Mr Fenech submitted that his right to a fair hearing was violated as the Appeals Board had not given him the opportunity to make his case on issues which that
board had raised only in its decision.

On its part Mepa submitted  that the appea was inadmissible as the law only permitted appeals to be filed on points of law decided by the Mepa appeals board.

According to Mepa, the Appeals Board had not ruled on any point of law but had merely applied the existing relevant policies to the facts of the case. The policy which regulated the case, said Mepa, was that known as the Policy for Open Storage and it was found that the permit did not comply with the policy's requirements.

The case was put off for judgement.

Lawyers Joseph J Vella and Karl Briffa were counsel to Mr Fenech.MEPA was represented by lawyer Noel Bartolo