Three environment NGOs said today that they considered it a waste of time and resources that the MEPA Board yesterday decided to revoke only the last of four permits issued to Victor Scerri for a development on the Bahrija Valley floor.

The Ramblers Association, Flimkien ghal Ambjent ahjar and Nature Trust (Malta) expressed their satifaction at the revocation of the most recent permit issued in the controversial case but said that as amply certified by the MEPA Auditor, similar irregularities prevailed in both the original permit and the subsequent permit.

"All three development applications were issued contrary to approved policy, and as confirmed by the Mepa Auditor, were issued illegally," the NGOs said.

They said the same Article 39a applied by Mepa yesterday should also have been applied previous applications on the grounds of false declarations, in that the site was wrongly described as level and the existing buildings misleadingly described as "existing dwellings"

The MEPA Auditor had clearly pronounced in clear terms that there was "a puerile attempt at misleading" the Authority all along because the applicant never meant to rehabilitate but "wanted to demolish whatever existed on site and rebuild a new building," the NGOs said.

The NGOs welcomed the fact that the Head of the Environment Directorate made it amply clear that the Bahrija valley floor was protected by the EU's Habitats Directive against any development that would not enhance the ecological system there, and any new development in SAC neededfull permission from the EPD.

They therefore called on Mepa to do its duty and insist that the site be restored to its former state.

They also insisted that other such applications that would surely have a negative impact on the environment, and were still being processed with similar irregularity should be stopped immediately.

The NGOs said they had always been careful to adopt an apolitical approach in the protection of the environment.