The planning authority should put its foot down and consider sealing off the whole of Montekristo Estates, according to the Office of the Ombudsman.

The statement came hours after a five-year-old was injured by a lioness at the unlicensed zoo and its owner, Charles Polidano, was kept under arrest overnight.

Mr Polidano, known as Iċ-Ċaqnu, was meant to be arraigned yesterday afternoon, but the case was not heard and he was released.

The illegal zoo has supposedly been closed since November, when a three-year-old boy was seriously injured by a tiger. Still, people were allowed in the park on Sunday, and also on Easter Sunday, although no entrance fee was charged.

Sunday’s incident is the latest in the saga surrounding Montekristo Estates, developed illegally in recent decades and described by the planning watchdog as “one of the largest illegal sites in Malta”.

Continued patronage of this complex,well-known to be riddled with illegalities, reflects their general standards and attitudes

Several events, including charity fundraisers, are held on site, endorsed by people in authority who justify their participation by saying the events are held in a sanctioned part of the Ħal Farruġ estates.

When contacted yesterday, the Environment and Planning Commissioner at the Office of the Ombudsman, David Pace, said that when the development was hit by an enforcement notice, further applications on the same site could only be processed as long as they included a request to sanction the illegal development.

When a large development was partly subject to enforcement action, the authority could opt to seal off the illegal area while allowing the rest of the development to be kept in use. However, in this case, “given the string of illegalities and the recurring breaches of notices to cease development, the latest being a repeat of an earlier incident… the planning authority is expected to show that it means business by sealing off the whole site if necessary”, he said.

While prioritising enforcement action on illegal scrap yards was commendable, the authority should extend similar enforcement action to any illegal commercial development with potential risk to health and safety and where its ‘stop and enforcement’ notices were continuously disregarded.

“Taking a soft approach to illegalities where commercial interests are involved cannot be described as being business friendly, but as an abdication of the responsibilities and functions of a regulatory authority in ensuring that all development is subject to the proper procedures of an application,” the Commissioner insisted.

Meanwhile, for former environment protection director Petra Caruana Dingli, some politicians treated the sanctioned part of Montekristo like a Potemkin village, camouflaging an “unpleasant reality” that lay behind.

“Their continued patronage of this complex, well-known to be riddled with illegalities, reflects their general standards and attitudes. They either don’t understand or just don’t care why it is unacceptable, and I’m not sure which is worse. Their approach exemplifies why planning and enforcement is such a disaster in this country,” she said when contacted.

Similarly, Front Ħarsien ODZ called on members of parliament, politicians and local councils to stop supporting the illegal establishment, appealing to the public to boycott “this monument of illegality”.

Meanwhile, the incident on Sunday rekindled calls for action to safeguard the animals at the park. When contacted, Animal Welfare Commissioner Emanuel Buhagiar said the issue of what to do with the animals had resurfaced when the animal park was closed in November.

He said it was difficult to find parks for captive-bred animals abroad and no park would accept captive-bred animals to be rehabilitated and released in the wild.

While Mr Buhagiar agreed with the planning authority that the owners had to abide by the law, he said the animals should not be punished and allowed to suffer in inadequate conditions.

Following an inspection last year, after the tiger injured the three-year-old, Mr Buhagiar wrote to the authorities suggesting that one option could be to allow the owners temporary permission to build appropriate enclosures for the animals. However, they would not be allowed to import or add any other animals, so that the environment would eventually be restored to its original state.