A controversial amnesty on building irregularities has raised nearly €10 million in just over a year, while requests to sanction illegal properties continue to be received.
The Planning Authority said more than 4,300 applications had been received under the regularisation scheme, with 80 per cent given the green light.
The amnesty, valid for another year, allows buildings, or parts of them, not covered by a permit to be regularised. They must, however, be within development zones and cannot constitute “an injury to amenity”, such as disturbing neighbours or the environment.
Four environmental NGOs filed a judicial letter over the scheme last year, claiming it facilitated a “process of regularisation by stealth”. They said the rules governing the scheme did not require the authority to publish notifications of the applications. This, they argued, was a blatant breach of transparency, as third parties were not being given the chance to register their objections.
The amnesty allows buildings not covered by a permit to be regularised
An architect acting on behalf of the applicants seeking to regularise a development, building or illegal use of a property makes on online request to the PA for regularisation.
The system was clearly geared to preventing public scrutiny of the permits for the “so-called regularisation,” the eNGOs said in their criticism.
This is the third amnesty by the planning watchdog in recent years, with similar programmes launched in 2012 and 2013 targeting abuse that could reasonably be resolved.
The applications ranged from the placement of balconies or height abuse to the construction of entire apartments
A request from this newspaper for a breakdown of the irregularities was being processed by the PA at the time of writing.
A review of the applications published in The Malta Government Gazette shows they ranged from the placement of balconies or height abuse to the construction of entire apartments. A PA spokesman said those seeking to regularise their properties had so far been billed a total of €9,940,450.
Some €8 million of the total has been allocated to the Irrestawra Darek grant scheme, which closed in March. It sought to promote investment in the restoration, conservation and maintenance of privately owned residential properties within urban conservation areas, along with scheduled buildings.
The spokesman said about 20% of the fee for every regularisation application was being allocated to the Development Planning Fund. Launched in January, the fund is geared to assisting local councils, government entities and NGOs to carry out urban improvement projects.